The UK has been warned by the Climate Change Committee that it will need to cope with weather extremes as a result of at least 2C of global warming by 2050.
In a letter today, the CCC said ministers should “at a minimum, prepare the country for the weather extremes that will be experienced if global warming levels reach 2C above pre-industrial levels by 2050”.
“We are not yet adapted for the changes in weather and climate that we are living with today, let alone those that are expected over coming decades,” wrote Baroness Brown of Cambridge, chair of the CCC’s adaptation committee.
The letter calls for a new framework of clear, measurable objectives to strengthen the UK’s climate resilience, warning that the next National Adaptation Programme must be “materially different” from previous plans, which have “repeatedly failed”
The CCC sets out what a “well-adapted UK” should look like — a country where health, food security and infrastructure are protected, public services can cope with heatwaves and floods, and economic growth remains “climate-resilient”.
The committee urged the government to plan not just for a 2°C rise but to consider the possibility of 4°C of global warming by the end of the century. “We continue to believe that the long-term temperature goal is achievable, but prudent risk management needs to consider a wider range of possible worse outcomes,”Baroness Brown wrote.
Baroness Brown continued in a briefing: “We continue to believe 1.5C is achievable as a long-term goal.
“But clearly the risk it will not be achieved is getting higher, and for risk management we do believe we have to plan for 2C.”
