To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to outline the role that nature-based solutions play in Northern Ireland’s Third Climate Change Adaptation Programme.

Mr Muir

Mr Speaker, with your permission, I will group questions 3 and 12. Since becoming Minister, I have had regular engagement on coastal management issues, including meetings with stakeholders, briefings from my officials and discussions with the Minister for Infrastructure. The coastal forum is a collaborative partnership involving local councils, the National Trust, my Department and the Department for Infrastructure, supported by an effective working group that continues to deliver the agreed work programme. Key achievements include a £2·5 million investment by my Department in coastal evidence gathering, resulting in complete coverage of the coastline. Building on that collaboration, partners have also secured €9·6 million from the PEACE PLUS programme for the coastal monitoring and adaptation planning project. As witnessed again this winter, coastal communities and infrastructure are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. Those impacts underline the urgent need for action that is set out in the third Northern Ireland climate change adaptation programme (NICCAP), which was published last month. The programme includes actions on coastal resilience that take account of the Climate Change Committee's (CCC) recommendation that the Executive consider introducing legislation on coastal change and the designation of responsibility to a Department. The climate change adaptation programme also outlines the role that nature-based solutions can perform in coastal areas, where blue carbon habitats such as salt marsh, seagrass, kelp forests and mussel beds not only store carbon but improve coastal resilience by reducing wave energy and help to limit erosion and storm impacts. More broadly, actions to restore peatlands, woodlands, grasslands and healthy soils reduce flood risk by slowing and storing water, while nature-based solutions in urban areas, such as sustainable drainage systems and urban greening, help to manage surface water and reduce heat impacts.

Mr Speaker

I have to say, Minister, that I find the grouping somewhat tenuous. Nonetheless, I will let you off with it this time.

Mr Martin

I thank the Minister for his answer. Minister, I asked your co-chair, the Sinn Féin Minister for Infrastructure, about some of the key developments over the past two years. She replied by telling me that £2 million — you referenced that figure — had been invested in "establishing the baseline". As I said, you made reference to that. Is it acceptable that, for the past two years, £2 million has, in effect, been spent on research and little has been done practically to protect the north Down coastline or, in fact, any other coastline in Northern Ireland?

Mr Muir

By way of a response to the Speaker, I am happy to take question 12 separately, if that is so desired. I find it a bit rich for the DUP to lecture me on climate change when the actions that I am trying to take to address the impacts of climate change have been stymied by its Department again and again. The climate change adaptation programme sat in the Executive for months before I could get agreement to publish it. We are seeking to take action on the issue. The institutions did not sit for two years, so I am seeking to catch up on the progress that should have been made. We are clear about the impact of climate change around Northern Ireland. We seek to take forward the climate change adaptation programme and deal with the issues associated with coastal erosion. The most fundamental thing that we can do, however, is to acknowledge that there is a climate change problem rather than continue to deny it.

Mr Muir

Steps are set out in NICCAP for the designation of that Department. It is important that that take place. It will also require legislation, which will have to be taken forward in the next mandate. A number of actions need to be taken forward, and we seek to do that collaboratively across government and with stakeholders.

Mr McGrath

Whilst the Minister mentioned lots of investment in preventative work and the mapping exercise, there are still examples in constituencies such as mine of South Down where people fear that they will lose their gardens, their homes and roads.

As well as looking to the future, is there any way in which finance could be made available where something of that nature is perilously close to happening to help people with the imminent issues?

Mr Muir

I am conscious of the impact that coastal erosion has on local communities. As the Member knows, it is a cross-cutting issue, and that is why we need to designate a Department and legislate for that. In the existing framework, responsibility for infrastructure such as sea walls, roads and harbours sits with the Department for Infrastructure, which manages and maintains those assets and carries out repairs and assessments, such as those in Donaghadee, where damage occurred recently. I highlight the need for everyone, including councils, to work together. We have to take a holistic approach, part of which involves nature-based solutions. We are conscious not only of the costs associated with hard infrastructure but of how it potentially moves the problem down the coast. If there are particular issues in the Member's constituency, I am happy to consider them in correspondence and follow them up with the relevant Ministers.