Special Features - The United Kingdom and climate change

The United Kingdom and climate change

Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world today.

Agriculture could suffer because of increasing flooding

Since the industrial revolution human activities have compounded natural climate change by increasing carbon emissions in the atmosphere. This legacy has produced an unprecedented rise in average global temperature.

Rising temperatures will bring changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather.

The impact is likely to be widespread. Flooding is likely to increase, droughts and desertification will spread, wildlife could be badly affected, and there is likely to be disruption to agriculture and food supplies. The number of refugees is likely to rise and millions of people could go hungry. The financial costs of flooding and insurance against bad weather are likely to rise substantially.

The effects will be felt here in the UK and, internationally, there may be severe problems for people in regions that are particularly vulnerable to changing weather patterns.

There is a need both for mitigation to help reduce carbon emissions and also for adaptation to prepare for the unavoidable impacts already stored up in the climate system.

Below we look at how UK institutions and citizens are dealing with this challenge:

What is the UK Government doing?
What is the UK Parliament doing?
What are UK industry, business, non-governmental organisations and charities doing?
What are UK citizens doing?

Rising temperatures will probably lead to increased desertification

WHAT IS THE UK GOVERNMENT DOING?

How is the UK Government adapting to the challenges of climate change? Several departments are involved:

Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
DEFRA runs the 2006 Climate Change Programme, the UK’s key strategy for tackling climate change. It sets out the policies and measures which the UK is using to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

DEFRA also published the Government's draft Climate Change Bill in March 2007. The official response to the public consultation is expected in the autumn. Pre-legislative scrutiny of the bill before it is introduced is already underway by a special parliamentary committee made up of members of both Houses of Parliament - the Joint Committee on the Draft Climate Change Bill.

As part of the Government's Act on CO² campaign DEFRA has also recently - July 2007 - produced a personal online CO² calculator which enables people to work out their carbon footprint using Government-recognised data and calculations.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
The FCO concentrates on energy security and climate change.

Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR)
The DBERR, formerly the Department of Trade and Industry, leads on energy and energy supply and published an Energy White Paper in May 2007

Polar ice is shrinking because of the rise in temperature

Department for Transport (DfT)
DfT concentrates on the impact of travel on the environment and how people can reduce the impact of their transport choices

DfT has recently launched a CO² car ranking website - August 2007 - which encourages people to search for the type of car they're looking for by What Car? category, transmission and fuel type, and automatically be given the list of the lowest CO² emitting models according to their requirements.

Department for International Development (DfID).
DfID is running a joint project on the effect of climate change on Africa.

No 10 Downing Street
Climate change page

Energy Saving Trust
The UK Government set up the Energy Saving Trust in 1993 to address the damaging effects of climate change. It is a non-profit organisation, funded both by government and the private sector. Its aim is to cut CO² emissions by promoting the sustainable and efficient use of energy. It works with households, business and the public sector in the areas of energy efficiency, road transport and renewable energy. Its member companies include BP, BG Group, Centrica, Johnson Matthey Catalysts, National Grid Transco, Northern Ireland Electricity, Powergen and Scottish and Southern Energy.

British Council
The British Council, which promotes UK education, culture and science overseas and is part-funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has an environmental section on its website which is a guide to research, funding, policy and practice in the UK. It also runs ZeroCarbonCity, part of its global campaign on climate change and the environmental impact of city living and urban industry

WHAT IS THE UK PARLIAMENT DOING?

There are two parliamentary committees involved in climate change: the Environmental Audit Committee, which looks at how polices and programmes of all government departments and other public bodies contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development; and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee which oversees the work of DEFRA.

The draft Climate Change Bill is undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny by a special committee of both Houses of Parliament - the Joint Committee on the Draft Climate Change Bill.

WHAT ARE UK INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS AND CHARITIES DOING?

Over the last few years many UK groups, organisations and companies have been campaigning, or at least taking a position, on climate change.

Some of the most comprehensive collections of links are listed below.

Climate Group
An independent, non-profit organisation founded in 2004 and dedicated to advancing business and government leadership on climate change, the Climate Group is based in the UK, the USA and Australia, but operates internationally. Its 41 members – companies and state or city governments - include Arup, Barclays, BP, BSkyB, HSBC, New York City, Massachusetts, Timberland, Johnson and Johnson, Virgin and many more.

The great river Rhine could be seriously affected by climate change and a rise in temperature

The group's website also carries a useful list of links to a variety of climate change organisations in the UK and other countries

Stop Climate Chaos

A UK umbrella group, set up in 2005, which aims to be a broad and diverse coalition to campaign for changes to the Government's climate change policy. It has 58 member organisations, mainly NGOs and charities, ranging from Airport Watch, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth and Ethical Jobs, to Islamic Relief, Oxfam, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Transport 2000 and UNA-UK.

There are links to all these organisations, with brief explanations of what each of them does, on SCC's website

UK Rivers Network

Although the UK Rivers Network campaigns solely to protect rivers and inland waters across the UK, it also has put together a comprehensive list of climate change links - nearly 260 in all and organised by subject - in what they describe as "a handy guide" to the best websites.

Crop failures in many countries are likely to increase because of climate change

dmoz: the Open Directory Project

This collection lists over 70 organisations, broadcasters, campaigns, directories, scientific articles, clearing houses etc concerned with climate change. It is organised alphabetically and is a mixture of UK and overseas websites.

WHAT ARE UK CITIZENS DOING?

Individual UK citizens are doing a variety of things which they believe will reduce their carbon emissions - or carbon footprint as it has become popularly known - ranging from using public transport rather than the car, to turning off the television rather than keeping it on standby.

The list of of things people can do is growing daily and and includes the following:

washing clothes at 30°C
using energy saving life bulbs
installing loft and other home insulation
buying food which hasn't travelled from the other side of the world
recycling paper, bottles, tins, newspapers etc
installing solar panels
buying locally-sourced food and other products

The Climate Group, which is described above, has recently started a campaign called We're in it Together which aims to help shoppers reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. A number of big companies have signed up and the site has details of various things people can do to reduce the impact of climate change around the world.