LONDON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The British government must work quickly to make sure the country's infrastructure can withstand the environmental stress from climate change, engineers said.
With warmer weather, heavier rains, more frequent flooding and harsh winters becoming more common as the climate changes, British infrastructure is becoming vulnerable, a report led by the Royal Academy of Engineering warned.
David Nickols, one of the authors of the report on the vulnerability of British infrastructure, said the British government must do more to address climate-related problems before roads and sewers start to fail.
"We need to have a debate on this -- it all depends on what politicians are prepared to do," he was quoted by The Guardian newspaper in London as saying.
The engineers' report said vital infrastructure could be strengthened to cope with environmental stress but London needed to make new regulations for that to happen.
Nickols said that preventative maintenance and upgrades were likely to be expensive no matter which course the government took.
