Last year’s heat will be considered normal by 2060 as temperature extremes in the UK change faster than the global average, according to the UK’s Met Office. By 2100, it would be deemed a ‘cool’ year.
(Bloomberg) — The record-smashing UK temperatures last year, which breached 40C, could be considered normal by 2060 and even cool by 2100, according to the country’s national weather service, as the definition of what’s normal changes in a rapidly warming planet.The study published by the Met Office Thursday found that climate change has made recent decades in the UK “warmer, wetter and sunnier than the 20th century.” The broader trend shows that extreme temperatures in the country are accelerating faster than the global average, it said.“2022 was an extraordinary year for the UK,” Mike Kendon, senior scientist at the Met Office, said in a statement. Last summer was the hottest for the country since at least 1884, with wildfires making July 19 London Fire Brigade’s busiest day since the Second World War. “As our climate warms, we expect far more high temperature records to be broken, potentially by wide margins, and far fewer low temperature records.” Read More: Britain Hasn’t Braced Up Despite 2022’s Record Wildfire Season
The warning comes amid growing doubts on the UK’s commitment to the carbon net-zero target of 2050. Higher borrowing costs and a cost-of living crisis are pressuring political parties to consider watering down climate policies that may burden consumers ahead of a general election due before the end of January 2025. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said earlier this week he would delay or abandon environment policies if they led to direct costs on consumers. Separately, housing secretary Michael Gove announced the UK would postpone proposals for energy efficiency upgrades to rental properties to avoid overburdening landlords with rising costs and stricter regulation. Meanwhile, the opposition Labour Party last month retreated from its initial £140 billion($181 billion) green investment plan over five years and now plans to ramp up spending gradually if it comes to power.Read More: UK’s Historical Homes Survived WW2. Then Came Extreme WeatherWhile government policies slow down, climate change has picked up pace. All months in 2022, except December, were warmer than the average between 1991 and 2020, the Met report said. The “cold snap of December” shows that severe winter can still affect the UK, the report said, underscoring the rising extreme weather.The climate will continue to warm through the coming century, “no matter what we do,” Kendon told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday. “We are locked into the fact that our climate is changing,” he said. “It’s just how much worse it’s going to be and that depends on what scenario we follow.”Here are some of the other key takeaways from the report:
- Last year was one of the least snowy years on record compared to the past 60 years
- The sea level around the UK has risen by about 18.5 cm since the 1900s but more than 60% of that rise occurred over the past 30 years. Each centimeter increases the danger of a major storm
- Change in seasonal temperatures is impacting various species in different ways, from birds and bumblebees to oak trees
–With assistance from Olivia Rudgard.
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