Climate change in the United Kingdom
in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protest and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects. The government has a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom by 50% on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 100% on 1990 levels by 2050. In May 2019, Parliament declared a 'climate change emergency', however this does not legally compel the government to act.
Emissions
| Country | Emissions |
| Luxembourg | 1,429 |
| The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | 1,127 |
| The United States of America | 1,126 |
| Belgium | 1,026 |
| The Czech Republic | 1,006 |
| Germany | 987 |
| Estonia | 877 |
| Canada | 779 |
| Kazakhstan | 682 |
| Russia | 666 |
| Denmark | 653 |
| Bahrain | 631 |
| Kuwait | 629 |
| Australia | 622 |
| Poland | 594 |
| Qatar | 584 |
| Trinidad & Tobago | 582 |
| Slovakia | 579 |
| The Netherlands | 576 |
The emissions for 2012 were 581 MtCO2e in total and 7.7 tonnes per capita. Carbon dioxide emissions have reduced 17% from 1990 to 2012 compared to 21% in Germany.
Import related emissions of the United Kingdom were 35% in 1992 and 67% in 2004. Consumer emissions have risen steadily over the period 1992–2004 and are in 2004 18% higher than in 1992, while the national total emissions reported to the UNFCCC in 1992–2004 have declined by 5%.
According to reports, 40% of the emissions in the UK come from individuals, energy being used up in homes, motor vehicle driving, and air travel. Almost a decade ago, UK had passed the Climate Change Act which requires the ministers to cut down the carbon emissions by 80% till 2050.
The Committee on Climate Change, an independent body which advises the UK and devolved Government, publish annual progress reports in respect to control the climate change in the United Kingdom. Meeting future carbon budgets UK will require reducing emissions by at least 3% a year. According to the report in June 2013 emissions of greenhouse gases increased by 3.5% in 2012 due to cold winter compared to 2011 and coal in power generation. UK 594 MtCO2e emissions by sectors in 2011 were 24% power, 19% industry, 18% land transport, 14% buildings, ca 1% agriculture and LULUCF and ca 1% aviation. Emission increase was biggest in aviation: Air transport in the United Kingdom emissions increased from ca 17 MtCO2 in 1990 to 35 MtCO2 in 2011.
Peat
UK peatlands cover around 23,000 km2 or 9.5% of the UK land area and store at least 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon. A loss of only 5% of UK peatland carbon would equate to the total annual UK anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Healthy peat bogs have a net long-term ‘cooling’ effect on the climate. Peatlands rely on water. When drained, peatlands waste away through oxidation, adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Damaged and degraded peatlands place a substantial financial burden on society because of increased greenhouse gas emissions, poorer water quality and loss of other ecosystem services.Coal
UK will phase-out coal in 2024. UK's Eggborough's plant was closed in 2018. The UK had two weeks in May 2019 with all its coal plants switched off for the first time since the Industrial Revolution began.Buildings
40% of UK greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the built environment. Design of buildings and the planning of cities can do much to counter climate crisis. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US. Among materials, only coal, oil and gas are a greater source of greenhouse gases. In cities, concrete also adds to the heat-island effect by absorbing the warmth of the sun and trapping gases from car exhausts and air-conditioner units – though it is, at least, better than darker asphalt.Legislation
There is in place national legislation, international agreements and the EU directives. The EU directive 2001/77/EU promotes renewable energy in the electricity production.The Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which aims to boost the number of heat and electricity micro-generation installations in the United Kingdom, so helping to cut carbon emissions and reduce fuel poverty.
The Climate Change Act 2008 makes it the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for all six Kyoto greenhouse gases for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower than the 1990 baseline.
In May 2019, Parliament approved a motion declaring a national climate change emergency. This does not legally compel the government to act, however.
Stern Review
The British government and the economist Nicholas Stern published the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change in 2006. The report states that climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen, presenting a unique challenge for economics. The Review provides prescriptions including environmental taxes to minimise economic and social disruptions. The Stern Review's main conclusion is that the benefits of strong, early action on climate change far outweigh the costs of not acting. The Review points to the potential impacts of climate change on water resources, food production, health, and the environment. According to the Review, without action, the overall costs of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global gross domestic product each year, now and forever. Including a wider range of risks and impacts could increase this to 20% of GDP or more.No-one can predict the consequences of climate change with complete certainty; but we now know enough to understand the risks. The review leads to a simple conclusion: the benefits of strong, early action considerably outweigh the costs.
Stern's review came in for much criticism at the time. Sir Partha Dasgupta, Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at Cambridge University said that Stern's assumptions would require the current generation to save 97.5 cents of every dollar produced: 'so patently absurd that we must reject it out of hand... the cause is not served when parameter values are so chosen that they yield the desired answers.' William Nordhaus, an economist from Yale, said the Stern Review should be read primarily as 'a document that is political in nature and has advocacy as its purpose.' This assessment seems to be justified by this statement within the Review itself: 'Much of public policy is actually about changing attitudes.'
Politics
The Climate Change Programme was launched in November 2000 by the British government in response to its commitment agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.London Green500 is a programme to reduce the carbon emissions of the London city organisations including new building by 60% by 2025. Urban areas account for 75% of world emissions, but less than 1% of the Earth's surface.
Energy alternatives
, Greenpeace and the RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds wrote in 2013: Why Government plans to subsidise burning trees are bad news for the planet? According to Princeton academic Timothy Searchinger the use of whole trees may increase greenhouse gas emissions by at least 49% compared to using coal over 40 years.Extreme weather
By 2014 the United Kingdom's seven warmest and 4 out of its 5 wettest years had occurred between the years of 2000–2014. Higher temperatures increase evaporation and consequently rainfall. In 2014 England recorded its wettest winter in over 250 years with widespread flooding.Storms
In 2020 PricewaterhouseCoopers estimate that Storm Dennis damage to homes, businesses and cars could be between £175m and £225m and storm Storm Ciara cost up to £200m.Floods
According to the Government the number of households in the flood risk will be up to 970,000 homes in the 2020s, up from around 370,000 in January 2012.Friends of the Earth criticised British government of the intended cuts to flood defence spending. The protection against increasing flood risk as a result of climate change requires rising investment. In 2009, the Environment Agency calculated that the UK needs to be spending £20m more compared to 2010 to 2011 as the baseline, each and every year out to 2035, just to keep pace with climate change.
According to the Met Office, figures for December 2013 and January 2014 combined were the wettest since records began in 1910. The effects of flooding and managing flood risk cost the country about £2.2bn a year, compared with the less than £1bn spent on flood protection and management.
In February 2014 during the British flooding the Church of England said that it will pull its investments from companies that fail to do enough to fight the "great demon" of climate change and ignore the church's theological, moral and social priorities.
from the UK government showing areas at risk of flooding.
Heat
In parts of the south east of the UK the temperature in the hottest days of the year increased by 1°C per decade in the years 1960 - 2019.The highest ever recorded temperature in the United Kingdom, was recorded in 2019 in Cambridge - 38.7°C. In 2020 the chances of reaching a temperature above 40°C are low, but they are 10 times higher than in a climate without human impact. In modest emission scenario by the end of the century, it will happen every 15 years and in high emissions scenario every 3 - 4 years. Summers with temperatures above 35°C occur in the UK every 5 years, but will occur almost every other year in the high emission scenario by 2100. Climate change had made heat wave 30 times more likely in the UK and 3,400 people died from them in the years 2016 - 2019. But the impact of climate change on heatwaves in other countries important for crop production can be much more severe that in the UK and will have a bigger impact on the United Kingdom.2018's temperature was 16.1 °C, meaning it ranks as the 18th warmest June recorded in England in the past 359 years, also being the warmest since 1976.
UK carbon neutral plan
The UK is legally bound by the Climate Change Act to reduce emissions 80% by 2050, but a new law mandating a 100% cut is under discussion in 2019. According to the Committee on Climate Change, the UK can cut it's carbon emissions down to near zero and so become carbon neutral, at no extra cost if done gradually from 2019 to 2050.Renewable energy
New wind power is expected to be installed 1-1.5 GW onshore and 1–2 GW offshore annually in 2008–2022.Figure 7 of the document shows the UK target to increase the share of renewable energy from 2008 to 2020 and the increase in the energy efficiency.
The 2009 Renewable Energy Directive sets a target for the UK to achieve 15% of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. This would see around 30% of electricity, 12% of heat and 10% of transport energy come from renewable sources by 2020.