'UK must prepare to cope with at least 2°C of warming by 2050'

THE UK must be prepared to cope with the extreme weather which will be associated with global warming of at least 2°C by 2050, climate advisers have said.

- EMILY BEAMENT

The independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) said the UK is not adapted to worsening extremes such as 40°C heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and flooding which are already occurring at current levels of 1.4°C of warming, “let alone” what is to come.

In a letter to the UK Government, the committee has urged ministers to set out stronger objectives and targets for protecting health, homes, food security, infrastructure and key public services, in the face of 2°C of warming by 2050 “at a minimum”.

And the committee said new homes, electricity networks and other infrastructure which is expected to last for decades, must be built with the potential to be adapted to cope with temperatures of as much as 4°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.

The trees planted now for storing carbon and cooling cities must also be able to withstand future temperature rises.

The advice urges the UK to plan for climate change which is worse than the long-term temperature goal of the international climate treaty, the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

The committee said it continued to believe the 1.5°C target was possible.

But “prudent risk management needs to consider a wider range of possible worse outcomes” with potentially faster rates of warming between now and 2050 leading to higher than the 2°C threshold by mid-century, while temperature rises of 4°C by the end of the century cannot be ruled out.