UK Climate Change: Impacts and Solutions

August 30, 2024

What is Climate Change?

Climate Change is the long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns. These changes are predominantly caused by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels. Climate changes can also be caused by naturally occurring events such as volcanic eruptions and sun activity.

Burning fossil fuels has over time become detrimental to the planet's overall health, fossil fuels generate greenhouse gas emissions that act as a barrier surrounding the earth trapping the heat from the sun therefore raising the earth’s overall temperature.

Climate Change is widely seen as the increase in the earth’s temperature; however, temperature rises are only the beginning, the Earth is comprised of many different ecosystems and habitats that require a variety of optimum environmental conditions. The rise in the earth's temperature causes more severe environmental issues including; droughts, wildfires, rising sea levels, regular storms, the melting of polar ice caps, and gradual loss of habitat and biodiversity.

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the UK has been one of the largest contributors to climate change. These contributions include;

Agriculture
Transport
Buildings/Infrastructure
The Industrial Sector
Production of energy

The Impacts of Climate Change:

Heatwaves:

The UK has experienced drastic changes to its overall climate, UK winters are becoming milder and wetter, while summers are also becoming hotter with heatwaves becoming 10 times more likely to occur, reaching temperatures of over 30 degrees. These heatwaves are a serious health risk causing dehydration and heatstroke. Warmer temperatures can also lead to a high demand for water and energy.

Flooding:

The UK has experienced more floods in the past 30 years, than the UK has seen in the last 500 years. Flooding is extremely disruptive to everyday life, restricting travel, damaging homes, destroying farmland and crops, and disrupting work and education through facility closures. Flooding can cause rivers and natural bodies of water to overflow, resulting in serious health risks as these waters carry various animal waste and bacteria. Recovering from a flood can be very expensive typically paying for relative damage costs.

Droughts:

A drought is a period where an area of land experiences little to no precipitation. This causes the ground to dry up, leading to crop damage, water shortage, and reduced groundwater such as rivers and lakes. In severe cases like the famous 1976 drought, access to clean water could be reduced, posing serious health risks such as various hygiene issues, and severe dehydration. For farmland and crops if water sources are unavailable this prevents irrigation resulting in crops dying off.

Wildfires:

Although wildfires traditionally are not a huge cause for concern in the UK, they have recently become more frequent, predominantly in farmland, due to increased temperatures and lack of precipitation, many areas of UK land have been struck by fires. This causes the ground to become hard and dry, the perfect kindling for a healthy fire.

Rising Sea Levels:

For those living on or near the coast, rising sea levels are a growing concern, homes situated along the coastline are vulnerable to coastal erosion, causing distress to homeowners, potential property loss or damage, and economic impacts on local areas. As well as already facing rising sea levels, coastal regions face more frequent and severe flooding.

What is the UK doing to prevent the climate crisis?

The severe impacts of Climate Change have encouraged action to discover solutions to manage and reduce carbon emission levels. The UK has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, actions that are currently taking place include:

Promoting renewable energy: In the attempt to phase out the usage of fossil fuels, and transition to cleaner, renewable energy from natural, environmentally friendly sources such as wind, solar, and hydropower. Since 2004 renewable energy has grown by 37% with Scotland now producing 90% of its electricity from renewable sources. In the UK the government has recently overturned the ban on onshore wind farms in England, a significant increase in cleaner energy.
Moving to electric vehicles: Transport sectors are required to reach zero emissions by 2050. Domestic Transport is the largest sector for greenhouse gas emissions. The government has issued a ban on all petrol and diesel to come into effect in 2035. As of July 2024, electric cars make up 16.8% of new car sales just this year.
Sustainable Lifestyles: Recycling and reusing products and materials are great for the health of the environment, recycling every day reduces the waste sent to landfills, preventing damage to the countryside that would be struck down to make room for further landfill space. Reusing products and materials prevent the pollution caused by the manufacturing of these products, not to mention the conservation of natural sources and energy.
International Collaboration: Alone, the UK isn’t able to turn around the climate change crisis. Countries must work together to address the issues caused by climate change. By doing this, carbon emissions will be reduced at an accelerated rate. The Paris Agreement treaty is the perfect example of these advances, the 2015 agreement, involves 195 countries working to limit global warming to below 2 degrees. To do this many countries in the UK are adopting similar methods as the UK, converting to renewable power sources, limiting transportation, and recycling more.

FAQs:

How is climate change affecting the UK?
The UK experiences consistently warmer temperatures, extreme weather events such as floods, heatwaves, and storms. Rising sea levels and a reduction in biodiversity.

How does climate change impact health in the UK?
Climate change increases health risks, heat-related illnesses, respiratory issues due to poor air quality, and extreme weather events are direct risks to human health and safety.

What are the economic impacts of climate change in the UK?
Climate change affects the economy through increased costs related to damage from extreme weather events including homes and various other infrastructure, and impacts on agriculture, fisheries, and tourism.

What can individuals do to help combat climate change?
Individuals can reduce their carbon footprint by where they can switch to renewable energy, using public transport, reduce meat consumption, recycle, and reuse sustainable products.

What is the role of local councils in addressing climate change?
UK councils are responsible for implementing climate action plans in their local area, promoting sustainable transport, ensuring public buildings and spaces are energy-efficient, and educating and encouraging communities to make sustainable choices.

What are the long-term consequences if climate change is not addressed?
If climate change isn’t addressed the UK will experience warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers. Extreme weather events will become more frequent, sea levels are expected to continue rising and health risks such as heatstroke are to become more frequent due to the rising temperatures.