CLIMATE risks are increasing and ought to be “a top priority”, a Scrutiny panel has said, after the Environment Minister said the climate crisis wasn’t “imminent” enough to be included as a risk factor in the 2026 Budget.
The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel is seeking to formally make the climate emergency a “wellbeing risk” in the government’s 2026 funding proposals.
In an amendment to the Budget, the panel called its omission “inappropriate and misleading” and argued that including it would highlight how vulnerable Jersey is to the effects of climate change.
In the report, the panel reminded the minister that they had asked him why the climate emergency risk had been left out of the budget, to which Deputy Steve Luce said: “We think the imminent possibility of something environmentally happening is not that great”.
But both Deputy Luce and Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham have said there were “increasing risks related to the climate” which they said remain “an absolute top priority”.
The panel highlighted that a significant sum of money is already budgeted to deal with the climate crisis – £1.9 million set aside for the Shoreline Management Plan, designed to protect Havre des Pas from eroding coasts and rising seas, and taxes on fuel are set to fund climate change measures.
“In light of the continued presence of climate-related risks, the government’s acknowledgement that the climate emergency remains a top departmental priority, and
the continuing mitigation work funded through the Budget 2026-2029, the panel
considers the removal of this risk from the environmental wellbeing section to be
inappropriate and misleading
“Reinstating the Climate Emergency as an identified risk ensures that the Budget accurately reflects both the Island’s long-term environmental vulnerabilities, the work underway to address them and ensures that the significance of the environmental risks that Government must continue to manage is clearly recognised within the Budget 2026-2029,” the panel said.
