The £14 million scheme is an investment in one of South Yorkshire’s most important flood defence assets and makes the Bentley area more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

The pumping station is used almost daily, not just during flood incidents. Its impact would be noticed within a few days if it stopped working, even in dry weather.

Bentley experienced devastating flooding in 2007 when the pumping station flooded, making it inaccessible for Environment Agency incident response teams. This led to the decision to refurbish and upgrade it, to make it more resilient.

The government funded refurbishment of the pumping station increased overall pumping capacity by 20 per cent and reduced operational carbon emissions by over 20 per cent.

Refurbishing the existing pumping station, instead of constructing a new one, has saved the taxpayer £8 million and made 60 per cent carbon savings. This is part of the Environment Agency’s work to use new innovative techniques, technology and lower-carbon materials to reduce its carbon footprint and help reach net zero targets.

The site is now significantly more flood resilient because all the vital equipment is now positioned out of the way of potential flooding, and access routes to the site have been raised above flood level.

The scheme was part of the Environment Agency’s previous six-year programme of capital flood defence schemes, which has successfully protected more than 314,000 homes since 2015.

Last year, a record £5.2 billion government investment to create around 2,000 new flood and coastal defences and better protect hundreds of thousands of properties across England was announced.

The project was officially opened by the chair of the Environment Agency, Emma Howard Boyd.

Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the Environment Agency, said:

At 80 years old, Bentley Ings Pumping Station is a great example of combining history with cutting edge engineering to prepare for rising climate shocks.

The teams working on this scheme have reduced carbon emissions in construction and operations by 60 percent, made savings of £8 million and increased pumping capacity by 20 percent.

Subsidence caused by 20th century coal mining means this station is used nearly every day even in dry weather so I hope this work will give people in Bentley and Doncaster a greater sense of security in the years to come.

The Coal Authority supported the project with a contribution of £1.5 million to the project.

Andy Morritt, acting head of Environment Strategy & Sustainability at the Coal Authority, said:

As part of our work to make a better future for people and the environment in mining areas, we work with key partners like the Environment Agency on schemes to mitigate and prevent flooding and pollution. This important upgrade will help manage the likely effects of climate change, giving communities greater protection in the future while helping to provide peace of mind and protecting the environment.

The refurbishment work was impacted by flooding in November 2019, so an additional £4 million was made available to repair storm damage to the pumping storm damage to the pumping station and provide further upgrades.

Environmental enhancements have also been made as part of the scheme through the planting over 1 km hedgerows, 60 trees and 2 hectares of diverse grass meadow.

Despite the challenges of the Covid -19 pandemic, further floods, and supply chain delays due to Brexit, the project has been delivered on time and to budget.

With the increasing impact of climate change, it is impossible to completely stop the risk of flooding. The Environment Agency is working with other organisations to help mitigate current and future flood risks.

• UK launches programme of up to £35m to support negotiations and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
• The AfCTFA is expected to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, create jobs, and provide new commercial opportunities for businesses across Africa and the UK.
• It comes as Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, visits London to discuss how the UK can continue its work as a strategic partner to the trading bloc.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has announced a new UK programme to support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) trading bloc.

Through the AfCFTA Support Programme, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) will provide up to £35m to provide trade facilitation and trade policy support to the AfCFTA Secretariat and Member States through TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and other regional partners.

Announcement of the programme comes as AfCFTA Secretariat Secretary General Wamkele Mene visits London to discuss how the UK can continue its work as a strategic partner to the AfCFTA.

As the world’s largest free trade area, the AfCFTA has the potential to boost Africa’s economic growth by driving industrialisation, generating jobs and delivering prosperity across the continent.

For UK businesses, the trade bloc will remove market access barriers by creating a single continental market, making it easier and more cost-effective for UK businesses to export goods and services across the 54 AfCFTA member states.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:

As an independent free trading nation, the UK strongly supports the AfCFTA – the largest free trade area in the world.

We’re keen to see continued momentum on outstanding negotiations, and on practical implementation of the agreement on the ground.

This new aid programme shows that trade is a force for good, and will lead to increased trade, investment, and prosperity for both Africa and the UK.

Minister for Africa Vicky Ford said:

Closer integration between African economies boosts growth across the continent creates opportunities and helps lift people out of poverty.

The UK is a committed partner in this mission. This UK funding will promote long-term partnerships between African countries and support a more prosperous, greener continent.

I am delighted to be supporting the AfCFTA Secretariat and its Member States to deliver freer and fairer trade systems in Africa.

Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat Wamkele Mene said:

We are pleased to receive this support from the Government of the UK, as it ushers us into a partnership for strengthening cooperation related to customs and trade facilitation and trade policy across the African continent.

In the last five years or so, we have seen the re-engineering of our Regional Economic Communities, to take into consideration the aspirations that are embedded in the AfCFTA instruments. We have also witnessed during this period the enthusiasm and the energy of our private sector to rise to the occasion and begin to exploit what is provided for in the Agreement.

Our ambition now is to see commercially meaningful trading in ‘Made in the AfCFTA’ products taking place, across the length and breadth of our continent, to create jobs and economic opportunities for Africans, especially women and the youth. We want to make trade easier for the Africans, in particular our women and young Africans who trade across our borders.

This new AfCFTA support programme is, therefore, timely to facilitate the implementation of the AfCFTA, through supporting national implementation committees and regional economic communities.

The programme builds on existing work from the FCDO and DIT Trade for Development unit to strengthen partnerships and resilience in Africa.

Under the UK’s G7 presidency last year, the new British Investment International (BII) group pledged to work with other G7 Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to invest at least $80 billion in the African private sector by 2027.

Support for projects in Africa from UK Export Finance is also at its highest in decades, backing a range of infrastructure projects in countries from Côte d’Ivoire to Uganda, with more than £2.3 billion of financial support in the past year.

The AfCFTA Support Programme also complements the UK’s broader partnership with the African Union as a multilateral institution to promote global values.

Alongside the Secretary of State for International Trade and Minister for Africa, Secretary General Mene will meet with members of the UK’s business and investor community while in London.

A series of workshops have been launched with members of the public to help inform the development of the government’s third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3).

The public dialogue workshops, overseen by Defra and in partnership with UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI’s) Sciencewise Programme, Ipsos and University of Leeds, will explore the public’s perspectives of climate adaptation and how they think the government, businesses and civil society should address it.

120 participants have been recruited to take part in the workshops and represent an accurate cross-section of the population of England.

The workshops will take place online over the next couple of months with participants from various locations across England, with a final report being published in the coming months.

This report will inform the engagement that will take place in the summer on the aims and objectives of NAP3, with the final programme of ambitious and robust policies to be announced next year.

Climate Adaptation Minister Jo Churchill said:

We must go much further and faster to properly prepare for the impacts of climate change in England, and we’re determined to tackle the increasing risks through an ambitious and robust third National Adaptation Programme.

These workshops are an important step towards this, and provide an invaluable opportunity to make sure we understand the public’s view of what a well-adapted England looks like and how they want the government and others to deliver it.

Tom Saunders, Head of Public Engagement at UKRI, said:

This public dialogue will give people a say on how the UK should adapt to climate change. These are really important issues that affect us all and we are grateful to all those giving up time to take part. With concern about climate change at an all time high, there is no better time to hear what different people around the UK want for their future.

Suraje Dessai, Professor of Climate Change Adaptation at the University of Leeds, said:

Little is known about what the public thinks about climate adaptation in England. This work will illuminate the public’s view of climate risks, adaptation options and responsibilities. This evidence is critical to inform the development of the government’s third National Adaptation Programme.

Rachel Brisley, Head of Energy and Environment in Public Affairs at Ipsos, said:

Ipsos is delighted to be involved in this pioneering work to understand and capture the public’s views on the key climate risks for England and their priorities for how we should adapt to these. So far, we have had some fantastic discussions and look forward to more that will help shape future adaptation In England.

The workshops deliver on a key recommendation of the Climate Change Committee’s Independent Assessment of Climate Risk with public engagement forming an important part of policy-making on climate adaptation.

It follows the publication of the UK’s Third Climate Change Risk Assessment in January, setting out the challenge of ensuring the UK is resilient to climate change and setting out the work already underway to meet that challenge.

Further information

Work that has been undertaken by the UK government and the devolved administrations to adapt to climate include:

• Investing a record £5.2 billion to build 2,000 new flood defences by 2027.
• Continuing work on the Green Finance Strategy to align private sector financial flows with clean, environmentally sustainable and resilient growth.
• Increasing the total spend from the Nature for Climate Fund on peat restoration, woodland creation and management to more than £750m by 2025.
• Ensuring that climate science and research, such as the UK Climate Projections 2018, are fully integrated into planning and decision making, including on major infrastructure.