U.K. Environment Agency to transfer coastal communities as sea levels rise

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The Environment Agency in the U.K. warned that due to coastal erosion and rising sea levels, many communities might be forced into relocation.

The chief executive of the agency, James Bevan, said, “Some of our communities, both in this country and around the world, cannot stay where they are.”

“That’s because while we can come back safely and build back better after most river flooding, there is no coming back for land that coastal erosion has simply taken away or which a rising sea level has put permanently, or frequently, underwater,” Bevan added.

The chief continued by saying that the relocation is going to be difficult for communities as they have gotten used to where their current residency is.

The sea levels are rising, and it’s not just a problem for the U.K., but rather an international issue that affects many small islands in both the Pacific Ocean and Indian regions.

The President of Maldives has sounded the alarm on how climate change is affecting his country, which is made up of 1,192 islands.

“Our islands are slowly being inundated by the sea, one by one. If we do not reverse this trend, the Maldives will cease to exist by the end of this century,” said Mohamed Soli, Maldives president.

The agency has already expressed that the movement of communities is inevitable, given how climate change progresses.

The mean level of the sea “reached a new record high in 2021, rising an average of 4.5 mm per year over the period 2013–2021,” according to the World Meteorological Organization.

To complete the U.K.’s plan, Bevan revealed the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy Roadmap, which lays out the specific steps the government will take to make community transition easy.

According to Bevan, “I think that, with the right interventions over the coming years, we can achieve that for most of the coastal communities in this country as far ahead as any of us can reasonably foresee.”

Bevan clarified that the identification of what communities would be transferred is still under discussion.

“No one should be forced from their homes against their will,” he said. “But — and there is a but — we do need to start the conversation about all this now.”