The risk wildfire poses to the United Kingdom’s woodland is rising, with the Climate Change Committee (CCC) estimating the cost of preparing for it at £38 million per year through to the 2040s. That is according to the CCC’s A Well-Adapted UK report, published this week by the independent statutory body advising the UK Government on climate adaptation, which pointed to the country’s first 10,000-hectare-plus wildfire as evidence that the threat is now operating at a scale forestry and woodland management must prepare for.
The Carrbridge and Dava Moor fire burned through more than 10,000 hectares of Scottish landscape in June last year, with the burn taking in large areas of commercial woodland, and the CCC singled it out as the marker for a risk profile driven by higher temperatures and falling soil moisture. The committee argued the combination has shifted UK wildfire management from a periodic contingency to an ongoing programme, with the £38 million annual figure giving ministers the scale of the response the report says will now be needed.
The CCC has called for increased tree species diversity across UK woodland by 2030 to slow the spread of wildfires through more flammable conifers and reduce monoculture exposure that drives the rapid spread of tree pests and diseases. (Photo Credit: PA / Forestry Journal)
The species diversification call is one of the report’s sharper signals for the forestry sector, with the CCC arguing that, by 2030, every tree planted in the UK should be suited to the climate conditions the country is heading into. Climate change will impact UK woodland and forestry and require increased resilient practices to support the health of newly planted trees and maintain timber production, the report authors said, adding that planting should include species that will thrive under expected climate conditions.
The committee set its tree diversity call alongside a warning about monoculture exposure, arguing forestry needed a wider species mix to avoid the rapid spread of tree pests and diseases — and to slow wildfire movement through more flammable species such as pine. That connects directly to the Scottish fire, with the Cairngorms landscape carrying the conifer mix the report flags as the higher-risk end of the UK’s commercial estate.
Baroness Brown, chair of the CCC’s Adaptation Committee, told the launch that the UK should be preparing for 2 °C of global heating by 2050 as the 1.5 °C ceiling under the Paris Agreement looked unlikely to hold, with the solutions to adapt the country effectively already in existence. “Our lives, our landscapes and our homes are under increasing pressure,” Brown said.
The wildfire and species recommendations sit within a broader adaptation agenda the CCC has set for the UK Government, with the report also calling for higher urban tree cover, a statutory maximum working temperature, and recognition that tree shade alone would not be enough for British homes to cope with the heating ahead. The Adaptation Committee delivered the report under the climate advisory mandate established by the 2008 Climate Change Act, with its recommendations now sitting with ministers.
The committee put the cost of UK wildfire management plans at £38 million per year through to the 2040s, with Baroness Brown telling the launch the country must now prepare for 2 °C of global heating by 2050 as the Paris ceiling slipped out of reach.
