Climate change in the United Kingdom facts for kids

Climate change has increased the risk of flooding.

Climate change in the United Kingdom is leading to a range of impacts on the natural environment and humans, including increasing storms, floods, heatwaves and sea level rise. Climate change inaction has been a subject of protest and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects. The government has a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom by 50% on 1990 levels by 2025 and to net zero by 2050. In May 2019, Parliament declared a 'climate change emergency', however this does not legally compel the government to act.

In December 2020, Boris Johnson declared that the UK will set a target of 68% reduction in GHG emissions by the year 2030 and include this target in its commitments in the Paris Agreement.

Emissions

The emissions for 2012 were 581 MtCO₂e in total and 7.7 tonnes per capita. CO2 emissions have reduced 17 % from 1990 to 2012 compared to 21 % in Germany.

Import related emissions of the United Kingdom were 35% in 1992 and 67% in 2004. Consumer emissions have risen steadily over the period 1992-2004 and are in 2004 18% higher than in 1992, while the national total emissions reported to the UNFCCC in 1992-2004 have declined by 5%.

The Committee on Climate Change, an independent body which advises the UK and devolved Government, publish annual progress report in respect to control the climate change in the United Kingdom. Meeting future carbon budgets UK will require reducing emissions by at least 3% a year. According to the report in June 2013 emissions of greenhouse gases increased by 3.5% in 2012 due to cold winter compared to 2011 and coal in power generation. UK 594 MtCO2e emissions by sectors in 2011 were 24% power, 19% industry, 18% land transport, 14% buildings, ca 1% agriculture and LULUCF and ca 1% aviation. Emission increase was biggest in aviation: Air transport in the United Kingdom CO2 emissions increased from ca 17 MtCO2 in 1990 to 35 MtCO2 in 2011.

Peat

UK peatlands cover around 23,000 km2 or 9.5% of the UK land area and store at least 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon. A loss of only 5% of UK peatland carbon would equate to the total annual UK anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Healthy peat bogs have a net long-term ‘cooling’ effect on the climate. Peatlands rely on water. When drained, peatlands waste away through oxidation, adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Damaged and degraded peatlands place a substantial financial burden on society because of increased greenhouse gas emissions, poorer water quality and loss of other ecosystem services.

Stern Review

The British government and the economist Nicholas Stern published the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change in 2006. The report states that climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen, presenting a unique challenge for economics. The Review provides prescriptions including environmental taxes to minimise economic and social disruptions. The Stern Review's main conclusion is that the benefits of strong, early action on climate change far outweigh the costs of not acting. The Review points to the potential impacts of climate change on water resources, food production, health, and the environment. According to the Review, without action, the overall costs of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global gross domestic product (GDP) each year, now and forever. Including a wider range of risks and impacts could increase this to 20% of GDP or more.

No-one can predict the consequences of climate change with complete certainty; but we now know enough to understand the risks. The review leads to a simple conclusion: the benefits of strong, early action considerably outweigh the costs.

Stern's review came in for much criticism at the time. Sir Partha Dasgupta, Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at Cambridge University said that Stern's assumptions would require the current generation to save 97.5 cents of every dollar produced: 'so patently absurd that we must reject it out of hand . . . the cause is not served when parameter values are so chosen that they yield the desired answers.' William Nordhaus, an economist from Yale, said the Stern Review should be read primarily as 'a document that is political in nature and has advocacy as its purpose.' This assessment seems to be justified by this statement within the Review itself: 'Much of public policy is actually about changing attitudes.'

Funds

Annual spending on preparing the UK for the impacts of global warming fell from £29.1m in 2012-13 to £17.2m in 2013-14. (CITATION NEEDED)

Energy alternatives

Further information: Energy policy of the United Kingdom

Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds wrote in 2013: Why Government plans to subsidise burning trees are bad news for the planet? According to Princeton academic Timothy Searchinger the use of whole trees may increase greenhouse gas emissions by at least 49% compared to using coal over 40 years.

Extreme weather

By 2014 the United Kingdom's seven warmest and 4 out of it's 5 wettest years had occurred between the years of 2000-2014. Higher temperatures increase evaporation and consequently rainfall. In 2014 England recorded it's wettest winter in over 250 years with widespread flooding.

Floods

According to the Government the number of households in the flood risk will be up to 970,000 homes in the 2020s, up from around 370,000 in January 2012.

The Friends of the Earth criticised British government of the intended cuts to flood defence spending. The protection against increasing flood risk as a result of climate change requires rising investment. In 2009, the Environment Agency calculated that UK need to be spend £20m more compared to 2010-11 as the baseline, each and every year out to 2035, just to keep pace with climate change.

According to the Met Office figures for December 2013 and January 2014 combined were the wettest since records began in 1910. The effects of flooding and managing flood risk cost the country about £2.2bn a year, compared with the less than £1bn spent on flood protection and management.

In February 2014 during the British flooding the Church of England said that it will pull its investments from companies that fail to do enough to fight the "great demon" of climate change and ignore the church's theological, moral and social priorities.

Heat

Year 2014 is estimated as England’s hottest year in over 350 years with climate change contribution.

EU energy plan 2008

At the end of 2008 the EU parliament approved the climate and energy plan including: - 20% emission cut of climate gases from 1990 to 2020 - 20% increase in the share of renewable energy from 1990 to 2020 - 20% increase of the energy efficiency 20% from 1990 to 2020.

UK energy plan 2016

The UK have legally bound by the Climate Change Act to reduce emissions 80% by 2050, but a new law mandating a 100% cut is under discussion in 2016.

Renewable energy

New wind power is expected to be installed 1-1.5 GW onshore and 1-2 GW offshore annually in 2008-2022.

Figure 7 of the document show the UK target to increase the share of renewable energy from 2008 to 2020 and the increase in the energy efficiency.

Savings

According to the government's climate advisers study in the end of 2013 Britain can save £85bn a year if it meets its carbon targets. Plan is to cut emissions by half in the mid-2020s. Less use of fossil fuels and increased energy efficiency reduce cost in air quality, health costs, energy bills, noise, wildlife, water, waste, traffic congestion and road accidents

Lobbying

A number of lobby groups in the UK focus on climate change including Friends of the Earth (who ran the Big Ask Campaign), Stop Climate Chaos coalition, the UK Youth Climate Coalition, Campaign against Climate Change, and 350.org.

Images for kids

• 

  Central England temperature dataset, 1659 to 2019.

• 

  Activist group Extinction Rebellion at a climate change protest in Bournemouth, 2021.