Helping you meet climate change head on

18 June 2009

New climate projections underline the need to prepare the UK for a warmer future and to take action now to limit the severity of change, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced today.

The UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) confirm that the UK is likely to see hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters coupled with more frequent extreme weather such as flooding, heatwaves and droughts.

UKCP09 is the latest cutting edge science developed by the Met Office Hadley Centre and is the first time that a probabilistic approach has been used for climate projections, allowing us to take a risk-based approach to planning for the future.

Met Office Chief Scientist, Julia Slingo, said: “Through UKCP09 the Met Office has provided the world’s most comprehensive regional climate projections with a unique assessment of the possible changes to our climate through the rest of this century. For the first time businesses and authorities have the tools to help them make risk-based decisions to adapt to the challenges of our changing climate.”

More about UKCP09

Dr Vicky Pope explains the science behind the UK Climate Projections. or download the transcript (PDF, 128 kB)

Read the full Defra News Release

Notes

• The Met Office Hadley Centre is the UK’s foremost centre for climate change research. Mainly funded by DECC (the Department of Energy and Climate Change), Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and the Ministry of Defence, it provides information and advice to the UK Governments on climate change issues.
• The UK Climate Projections have been funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department of Energy and Climate Change with the Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly Government and Northern Ireland Department of the Environment.