The UK should be prepared to cope with weather extremes as a result of at least 2C of global warming by 2050, independent climate advisers have said.
The country was “not yet adapted” to worsening weather extremes already occurring at current levels of warming, “let alone” what was expected to come, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) wrote in a letter addressed to the government.
The committee said they would advise that the UK prepare for climate change beyond the long-term temperature goal set out in the Paris Agreement.
The CCC said they had been asked to provide advice on a timeframe for setting adaption scenarios, based on “minimum climate scenarios”.
Achieving “net zero” is the world’s key target for fighting climate change, which climate scientists have agreed is already making a serious impact around the globe.
The Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, and saw almost 200 countries pledge to try and prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
As the CCC outlined in their letter, a global warming level of 2C would have significant impact on the UK’s weather, with extreme events becoming more frequent and widespread.
They said the UK could expect increased heatwaves, drought and flooding, and wildfire season would likely extend into autumn.
Baroness Brown, chairwoman of the adaptation committee for the CCC, said: “People in the UK are already experiencing the impacts of a changing climate, and we owe it to them to prepare, and also to help them prepare.
“Adaptation in the UK is not keeping up with the increase in climate risk. The impacts on the UK are getting worse and (the government) needs more ambition,” she told the BBC’s Today programme.
The chairwoman also levelled criticism at Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who pledged to scrap the UK’s landmark climate change legislation and replace it with a strategy for “cheap and reliable” energy.
Baroness Brown dubbed the promise “disappointing”, and said she hoped that the conservative leader would “reflect on the fact that the act covers both adaption and mitigation”.
The UK is already experiencing shifting weather patterns due to climate change, with four official heatwaves confirmed in 2025 across what the Met Office have said was the hottest summer on record.
Met Office climate scientists have found that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would have been in a “natural” climate, with no human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
