What is the UK’s biggest climate risk? Severe, widespread flooding
Creative Commons: Victoria Bensley, 2007
Severe flooding that could affect millions of people is the United Kingdom’s most pressing climate-change risk, says a study released yesterday by the country’s government.
The first Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA), published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), examines 100potential consequences of climate change for the United Kingdom. The study draws on climate projection models from 2009, known as the UKCP09, and examines how different levels of greenhouse-gas emissions could affect sectors such as agriculture, health and infrastructure over the twenty-first century.
John Krebs, chairman of the Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change in London, an independent body that advises the government, said in a statement that the study demonstrates the need for urgent action to reduce risks. Without an effective plan, “the country may sleepwalk into disaster”.
The study was mandated by the 2008 Climate Change Act, which legally requires the United Kingdom to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. The CCRA will be updated every five years.
Read more: Nature.com >>
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