Hinchliff said he had written to Burnham because “this is an important moment to be emphasising the need for swift and decisive action, to improve the resilience of our country to extreme weather”.
“We have farmers already ringing alarm bells around food shortages because of the impact on the harvest this year,” he said.
“I think it’s clear for everyone to see that our country has a long way to go before it’s properly adapted to the new climate reality that we face.”
He called on the government to accelerate food security planning, review the resilience of infrastructure to extreme heat, urgently plant trees and restore wetlands to mitigate flooding, and implement heat adaptation planning for schools and hospitals.
A government spokesperson said its taskforce would focus on “cascading and systemic risks” from climate phenomena such as El Niño, recognising impacts were felt “far beyond the regions where they originate”.
It is also working to protect the UK’s food security, investing £11.7bn in sustainable farming and “billions more in the development of new technology and climate resilient crops to increase yields”.
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