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Impact of Climate Change in the UK - Farheen Alom GGS

Gas exhaust fumes from car engines <i>(Image: Farheen Alom)</i>
Gas exhaust fumes from car engines (Image: Farheen Alom)

Impact of Climate Change in the UK

Climate change is an issue that is being tackled globally due to its long lasting effects and detrimental damage it can have on wildlife, economy, the environment etc. Increasingly over the last few years, we have seen this issue come to rise particularly in the UK's hotter and drier summers and increased frequency of more wet winters- not to mention the recent upsurge of natural disasters (earthquakes, wildfires) plaguing other countries.

Currently, the UK's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have increased by 6% since 2021 although only accounting for approximately 1% of the population. Indeed, according to the Met Office, even if these HG emissions are reduced, sea levels around the UK will keep rising beyond 2100. There is also danger of flooding in parts of the UK, specifically amongst low-lying and coastal cities. However, the effects of climate change have not been all doom Md gloom and frankly, some public bodies seem to have used this ever-developing poison to their advantages: some benefits of climate change mitigation have been improvements in public health, reduced NHS costs, greater energy security, growth in the low-carbon jobs market and a reduction in poverty and inequality. This seems to suggest that due to the mass impact of this issue, countries have simply learned how to extract benefits from it alongside attempting to tackle it.

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As the climate continues to change, millions of poor people face increasing challenges in terms of extreme events, health effects, food, water, and livelihood security, migration and forced displacement, loss of cultural identity. and other related risks. A few ways in which the UK are trying to tackle climate change is largely through the Climate Change Act committing the UK and other devolved bodies to reduce GHG emissions by at least 100% of 1990 levels by 2050. They have been relatively successful at this seeming as electricity emissions fell by 73.4% between the years 1990 and 2021 largely due to a substantial reduction in coal generated electricity.

Many people question whether the fight to stop climate change has begun too late, but many scientific studies and evidence suggests that although the effects of the Earth's activities have been essentially irreversible, there is no reason to deny that any effort or attempt made now to avoid global warming would result in less damage from an issue that would otherwise potentially persist forever.|