In January 2012, the first Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) report was presented to the UK government to inform national adaptation policy. Regarding the agricultural sector, we and our colleagues used a risk-metric approach to assess consequences for crop yield. Writing in Nature Climate Change, Semenov et al. present a critique on the crop yield metric used in our analysis. Although we do not refute the scientific evidence presented, we do question its purpose. (Correspondence)