UK Climate Change Report - 800,000 Homes at Risk of Flood

As many as 800,000 British homes could be at risk of flooding as a result of climate change, according to a new report issued by experts in the UK at the request of the British government.

The report was published on June 18th 2009 by UKCIP, the UK Climate Impact Programme, and highlighted how the current forecast figure for houses set to be affected by rising sea levels could probably now be doubled.  In terms of timeframe, the report added that these climate change effects would likely be felt within 25 years.

Summer temperatures experienced in Southern England during June, July and August will have increased by two degrees Centigrade by 2040, the scientists behind the report projected, and over four degrees more by 2080.  With this will come the heightened risk of cases of skin cancer, and of insects spreading diseases.

UK Climate Projections 2009

The new study, entitled UKCP09 - UK Climate Projections 2009 - out-did previous, similar reports on the anticipated state of the UK once climate change has truly taken hold, in terms of the sheer darkness of the picture it presented. 

Funding for it was provided by DEFRA - the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - and among the scientists involved were representatives from Oxford University and the Met Office.

CO2 Emission Reduction Strategies

UK Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, has called on businesses and home owners alike to place even more emphasis on implementing CO2 emission reduction strategies, and is anticipated to shortly make public a number of other measures.  This will likely focus on ensuring hospitals can cope with an influx of heat-related conditions, changing aspects of farming and advocating that water meters are used more.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Mr Benn highlighted how the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases meant that climate change would “come anyway”, adding that the result of discussions to take place in Denmark in December 2009 would influence the environment’s future state.

“We should think about our children's and our grandchildren's lifetimes because we don't want to hand on to them a climate that is out of control”, Benn stressed, adding: “There are very practical steps we can take.”

Climate Change Response Plans

A recent report published by the Times newspaper wrote that over 100 organisations – the British Army and the National Health Service among them – would be forced to issue climate change response action plans by 2010.

The new report is intended to bring a previous 2002 study into the present moment.  The older version wrote that the UK could expect increasingly warmer days, and that tides would carry on rising.