Response to floods puts No 10 in deep water

Campaigners dressed as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (left) and Prime Minister David Cameron pose in front of a mock up of a flooded 10 Downing Street in London, to urge the Prime Minister to act on climate change

A poll of 1,000 adults in Oxfordshire, West London, Somerset and Cornwall showed that three out of five were not satisfied with how the coalition reacted to the severe weather.

More than one in five of those questioned for the Climate Coalition said they were now more worried about climate change following the weather emergency.

The research was published ahead of a meeting in Brussels by European leaders in a bid to negotiate a new set of targets on climate and energy for 2030.

Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said: “These floods show beyond doubt that Britain can’t pull up a drawbridge to keep itself safe from the risks of climate change.

“It’s time our government got serious about pushing for real action across the UK and Europe to slash the polluting emissions that are driving more extreme weather.

“The EU summit is David Cameron’s first test to prove he’s learned the lessons from the floods and is taking climate security seriously. There’s a whole new constituency of people, including many in Cameron’s own county, who have experienced the brutal force of flooding for the first time.”

Oxfam campaigns and policy director Ben Phillips said: “The recent extreme weather in the UK offered us all a glimpse of what climate change could mean for us in the future.

“Around the world, poorer people are already feeling the effects of climate change with increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather disrupting seasons and hampering food production.David Cameron should push the EU to be more ambitious in cutting emissions to protect people in the UK and overseas from climate change.”

Campaigners staged a demonstration in Westminster, parading a replica of a waterlogged 10 Downing Street.