UK Climate Change programme Annual Report published

The Annual Report to Parliament setting out progress of the UK's Climate Change Programme was published by Defra on 17 July 2008.

The document brings together material, most of which has been released previously, to provide a full summary of statistical data and Government activity in the field of climate change in the last 12 months.

The report emphasises the importance of both reducing emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change and outlines emerging policy in this area. It sets out previously published UK emissions data for carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, along with the steps Government has taken, and proposes to take, to reduce emissions.

UK Climate Change programme Annual Report

What is Climate Change?

Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world today. Rising global temperatures will bring changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather. The effects will be felt in the UK; internationally there may be severe problems for people in regions that are particularly vulnerable. We are acting now to adapt to climate change and to reduce the risk by contributing less to the causes.

Climate change affects all of us - and we can all be part of the solution.

Climate refers to the average weather experienced over a long period. This includes temperature, wind and rainfall patterns. The climate of the Earth is not static, and has changed many times in response to a variety of natural causes.

The Earth has warmed by 0.74°C over the last hundred years. Around 0.4°C of this warming has occurred since the 1970s.

The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) leaves us in no doubt that human activity is the primary driver of the observed changes in climate. Scientists at the UK Hadley Centre (which is substantially funded by Defra) made significant contributions to this report.

The main human influence on global climate is emissions of the key greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide. The accumulation of these gases in the atmosphere strengthens the greenhouse effect. At present, just over 7 billion tonnes of CO2 is emitted globally each year through fossil fuel use, and an additional 1.6 billion tonnes are emitted by land use change, largely by deforestation. The concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere have now reached levels unprecedented for tens of thousands of years.

According to AR4, mean global temperatures are likely to rise between 1.1 and 6.4°C (with a best estimate of 1.8 to 4°C) above 1990 levels by the end of this century, depending on our emissions. This will result in a further rise in global sea levels of between 20 and 60cm by the end of this century, continued melting of ice caps, glaciers and sea ice, changes in rainfall patterns and intensification of tropical cyclones.