Climate Change
Judging by the list of priorities identified among the UK electorate by a pre-election survey, climate change comes fairly low on the list. That is understandable since many, perhaps most, of us have immediate issues with; the cost of living, the NHS, Social Care to name but a few. However, we might need to rethink.
The second annual Indicators of Global Climate Change report, which is led by the University of Leeds, reveals that human-induced warming has risen to 1.19 °C over the past decade (2014-2023)—an increase from the 1.14 °C seen in 2013-2022 (set out in last year’s report).
Looking at 2023 in isolation, warming caused by human activity reached 1.3 °C. This is lower than the total amount of warming we experienced in 2023 (1.43 °C), indicating that natural climate variability, in particular El Niño, also played a role in 2023’s record temperatures.
The analysis also shows that the remaining carbon budget—how much carbon dioxide can be emitted before committing us to 1.5 °C of global warming—is only around 200 gigatons (billion tons), around five years’ worth of current emissions.
On that basis, if we don’t reduce CO2 emissions quickly and dramatically our world will change irrevocably and not in a good way.
Unlike most other greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide, once it is in the atmosphere remains there for between 300 and 1,000 years and with it the effect it has on our climate. So on current projections it is not too dramatic to say that we are staring disaster in the face, not just for us but for our children and grandchildren.
