evidence: Some UK coastal communities will have to move inland because of climate change. That was the opening message of James Bevan, chief executive of the UK’s Environment Agency (EA), at the Flood and Coast Conference on 7 June 2022. A week later, on 15 June, a study revealed that rising sea levels put 120,000 to 160,000 UK properties at risk of flooding in the next 20 to 50 years. Even if global warming is limited to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels, sea levels will rise. According to the 2018 UK Climate Change Projections by the EA, the average sea level could increase by more than a metre by 2100 and extreme weather events will increase. As a result, total annual damages to residential buildings from flooding (including from groundwater and rivers) in the UK could rise to £1.2bn by the 2080s in a worst-case scenario, of which £280m could be from coastal flooding alone. [...] "Climate change will only bring more extreme weather and this road map will spur on the timely action required to manage flood and coastal risk, help reduce the costly impacts and manage the risks to people’s homes and businesses across the country," said Floods Minister Rebecca Pow in a press release.