About climate change
What are the impacts of climate change?
Sea level rise, heatwaves, wildfires… discover how climate change is affecting the natural environment and impacting humanity – globally and here in the UK.
By
Jamie
On this page, we go into detail about the global effects of rising temperatures as well as how climate change will impact the UK in particular.
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Tell Labour they can win votes by prioritising climate action – Pledge to put climate first at the next election. Make the pledge and we’ll tell you when and how to cast the strongest tactical vote for climate in national and local elections.
When humans burn fossil fuels, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are released into the atmosphere, trapping the sun’s heat and causing global average temperatures to rise. We call this climate change, and you can read more about it in our guide ‘What is climate change?’
Globally, climate change has many effects on the natural environment:
Overall, climate change is making the world less hospitable to humans and many of the animals, plants and organisms we share the world with. The climate is changing so fast that it’s hard for species – including humans – to adapt.
Climate change impacts humanity in many ways:
The uneven impacts of climate change
The effects and impacts of climate do not fall evenly.
Often Global South countries – also known as ‘developing countries’ are worst affected, because of where they are in the world. As well as facing more severe effects from climate change, these countries are often less able to adapt than rich countries in the Global North. This means their populations are often the most severely impacted.
Despite being worse-affected, Global South nations are generally the least responsible for climate change, which was largely caused by Global North countries such as the UK who industrialised – and started burning fossil fuels – first.
The UK is vulnerable to many of the same effects and impacts of climate change as other parts of the world. Research by scientists and meteorologists (weather and climate specialists) has pinpointed some of the specific ways the UK is at risk.
Effects of climate change in the UK
Broadly speaking, summers will become hotter and drier, while winters will get warmer and wetter.
In 2022, the UK experienced the first temperatures in excess of 40C in recorded history! This was about 1.5C warmer than the previous record – registered just a year earlier. All of the UK’s 10 warmest years have occurred since 2002, with heatwaves like that which occurred in 2018 now 30 times more likely to occur than in the past.
If emissions continue to rise rapidly, heatwaves like this will occur every other year by 2050. And by 2070, the chances of temperatures exceeding 40C in a given year will be similar to the chances of exceeding 32C 30 years ago. In the south of England, we can expect the average hottest summer day to exceed 40C.
Assuming emissions continue to rise rapidly, the Met Office has calculated that, by 2070:
Impacts of climate change in the UK
The impacts of this in the UK will be – and already are – stark:
As at the global level, these impacts will not affect everyone in the same way. Overall, poorer communities will be hit harder and less able to adapt.
There are lots of things you can do – from switching to a plant-based diet to giving up flying. There are many good reasons to take individual steps to reduce our emissions. However, what we do as individuals is a drop in the ocean. What we really need is government action.
At VoteClimate, we want to show the Labour government that it can win votes in future elections by adopting better climate policies. You can pledge to put climate first at the next election – if enough people make this pledge, we can show Labour that voters want climate action. And when you sign up, we’ll tell you when and how to cast the strongest tactical vote for climate in national and local elections.
Image credit: Alisdare Hickson (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr
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Sea level rise, heatwaves, wildfires… discover how climate change is affecting the natural environment and impacting humanity – globally and here in the UK.
If you’d like to learn the basics or explain what’s going on to friends and family, our guide introduces the science and key concepts behind climate change.