Adapting to Global Warming: The first UK Climate Resilience Review

Whether it’s a hot spell, a cold spell or flooding, the weather in the UK rarely seems to sit at a ‘normal’ place in recent years.

Planning for extreme weather is essential to save lives.

Unfortunately, 2024 shows no signs of that trend abating. In fact, research suggests there’s a 99 percent chance that 2024 will rank among the top five hottest years in human history.

2023 was the hottest year on record so far already, reaching over 40C and it turns out the other hottest years have all happened since the year 2000. Pollution from burning oil and gas, is causing the world to warm and global warming is accelerating fast with huge consequences for all of us.

Action needs to happen now

A group called the London Climate Resilience Review have published a report that concludes the capital is “underprepared” for climate change impacts like excessive heat, fires, sea level rise and flooding.

The severe flooding this winter has disrupted millions of people so the report couldn’t come at a better time. Planning for extreme weather is essential to save lives so now is exactly the time to start mitigating for the excessive heat that is sadly the new norm.

There are plenty of ways our lives are going to change because of weather patterns – more information is here:

• Six ways life in the UK will change because of climate change

The Health and Safety Executive estimates there were 2,803 excess deaths during periods of heat in summer 2022. That’s people losing their lives because of the extreme temperatures.

In 2022, about 1,200 deaths were related to the coldest days.

When you look at those figures, we need to be far better prepared for the hot weather than we currently are because it’s costing lives.

Pollution from fossil fuels produced by Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil and Chevron up to 2050 could result in 11.5 million excess deaths from heat by 2100

• Emissions connected to top oil and gas firms may cause millions of heat deaths by 2100, study finds | Oil and gas companies | The Guardian

Multi agency exercise in London planned

One of the major findings of the review is that London should conduct a multi-agency exercise to test just how prepared the capital is for extreme heat, which will happen later this year.

The review also suggests the government should give local councils more budget to help communities adapt to climate change – and it also suggests improvements are made to houses to help Londoners cope when the mercury rises.

Trend driven issues

The trend for lots of glass in new buildings that act as a greenhouse and lots of high-rise flats where warm air rises mean indoor temperatures can soar making it hard for us humans to cool down.

Air conditioning units are expensive so not everyone can afford them. And families in overcrowded accommodation and vulnerable people are more at risk of overheating.

Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the Review, said: “London has many good plans and programmes to prepare for climate hazards, but we need to recognise that Londoners now face lethal risks, and a step change is needed. Last year was the hottest on record and this is causing chaos and disruption all over the world. London is not immune, as shown by the flash floods in 2021 and a 40-degree heatwave in 2022.

“I am really pleased that the Mayor has agreed to support an exercise to prepare for even more severe heatwaves than we saw in 2022. This is a positive step that will help London organisations plan to protect more Londoners in future shocks.”

Cities across the UK need to follow suit

Where London leads though, the rest of the country follows. There have been significant local authority cuts in the UK due to austerity policies and with budgets restricted, there’s less money to be spent on climate adaptation plans which could save lives.

The review found London is at risk from rising sea levels, flooding, heat, drought and wildfires. The same can be said for towns and cities across the country. There are over 2000 miles of canals and rivers in the UK, plenty of them flow through incredibly built-up areas in towns and cities. We have the longest coastline in Europe. It’s not just the capital that’s at risk from global warming, all major cities like Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol need to assess how prepared they are for the fact that 2024 is going to be one of the five hottest on record.

The current approach is not working, and change is needed…

So says the Government Climate Watchdog.

The Climate Change Committee’s initial assessment of the Government’s Third National Adaptation Programme said its key failure remains the absence of a credible vision for a well-adapted UK, resilient to the climate risks now facing the country.

• Independent Assessment of the Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) (theccc.org.uk)

Piers Forster, chair of the Climate Change Committee said “The UK is not resilient to the threats of climate change. Other countries from Germany to Bangladesh are doing more to adapt. UK plan needs 1. Coordination of plans across central and local gov 2. Investment aligned to clear targets and 3. Monitoring of a set of key indicators”

Global warming is happening now and these changes are going to get worse. The more we prepare for the impacts of carbon pollution, the safer we will be.

There’s plenty of information on how you can prepare for flooding here:

• Flooding this winter: What you need to know to prevent floods in your home

Heatwaves can be just as serious a threat though as flooding. Information on managing in a heatwave can be found here: How to stay cool during a heatwave and the heatwaves across the country in 2022 cost lives.

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