These impacts range from deteriorating food security to deadly and devastating heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels that will affect families and businesses.
Climate Change Committee (CCC) warned on Wednesday that The UK is not preparing for the many potential impacts of a warmer planetAs homes suffocate and wildfires rage to empty supermarket shelves.
As leaders step up their efforts to reach the UK’s zero-emissions target, the UK is lagging behind in its plans to adapt to risks, such as erosion-stricken coastal railways or overheated schools, according to the independent advisory group.
“Adaptation remains a Cinderella of climate change. “It’s underfunded and often overlooked,” said Julia King, CCC’s head of adaptation and a member of the House of Lords.
“We are not yet prepared in the UK for the unprecedented events that could happen now,” he said in an online discussion as the group published its third report on climate risks, the first in five years.
It analyzes the projected effects of a global warming of 2°C since pre-industrial times – the least ambitious target of the Paris Agreement – as well as the potential for a 4°C warming if efforts to limit global warming fail.
These impacts range from deteriorating food security, with the loss of crops grown and imported in the UK, to increasingly deadly and devastating heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels that will affect families and households.
Mark Carney, former Bank of England governor and UN special envoy for climate action and finance, warned that “climate risks will eventually affect all sectors of our economy and society,” describing many of the risks as “no precedents”.
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