Stark warning: Three experts react to latest Met Office data
Thursday 29 July 2021 08:14, UK
The UK is likely to hit 40C in summer even if humanity manages to limit global warming to 1.5C.
All of the top-ten warmest years for the UK in records back to 1884 have occurred since 2002.
Last year was the third warmest, fifth wettest and eighth sunniest year on record - the first ever to reach the top ten in all three categories.
These stark warnings on climate change were issued today by the UK's leading meteorologists.
But they said there were still some reasons to be cheerful.
A 'wake up call'
The extreme weather that features in the report and that has made huge headlines recently, including deadly flooding in Europe and flash floods in London, could galvanise action, said Professor Liz Bentley, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society.
The paper was published in The Royal Meteorological Society's 'International Journal of Climatology'.
"Our climate is changing. We have to do something about it," said Prof. Bentley.
"We often wait sometimes for an extreme event to happen, something severe to happen in order to to make the change that is needed.
"So I'm hopeful that the recent extreme events... It's a wake up message for us all that we need to do something, we need to take action and we need to do that now."
'Big step in right direction'
Dr Svetlana Jevrejeva, leader of sea level and ocean climate at the National Oceanography Centre, said there was hope in the fact the new generation will be "better equipped with knowledge and understanding and solutions" to deal with the climate crisis.
She called the report was a "very good communication tool" that was "already a big, big step in the right direction".
'Clarion call' for solutions
"I think the hope that comes from this is understanding that we have some solutions," said Dr Darren Moorcroft, chief executive of the Woodland Trust. "And we can start to implement them if we choose to."
He hopes the report will act as "a kind of clarion call to say now is the time to start deploying" them, "whether they are nature based solutions, whether they're technological solutions or whether they're striving for new solutions that we don't yet have."
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Sky News has launched the first daily prime time news show dedicated to climate change.
The Daily Climate Show is broadcast at 6.30pm and 9.30pm Monday to Friday on Sky News, the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.
Hosted by Anna Jones, it follows Sky News correspondents as they investigate how global warming is changing our landscape and how we all live our lives.
The show also highlights solutions to the crisis and how small changes can make a big difference.