Climate change

About the Met Office Hadley Centre

The Met Office Hadley Centre provides a focus in the UK for the scientific issues associated with climate change.

The big picture

On this page you will find all the known facts about climate change.

Met Office Consulting

Using expert knowledge of weather and climate science we help government and businesses plan for future climate change impacts.

Frequently asked questions

Answers to questions about the weather and climate change.

Publications

A comprehensive list of all Met Office publications including brochures on climate research from the Met Office Hadley Centre.

Climate Change is a global issue and the Met Office Hadley Centre is leading international research into what could happen under climate change, and the impacts on current and future generations.

Latest news and events

What can climate scientists tell us about the future? | 2 May 2008
Dr Vicky Pope, Head of Climate Change for Government, Met Office Hadley Centre explains.

Climate change and global variability | 5 Mar 2008
A significant drop in global average temperature in January 2008 has led to speculation that the Earth is experiencing a period of sustained cooling.

Climate change may devastate crop yields | 7 Feb 2008
Recent reports suggest that climate change could cause severe crop losses in south Asia and southern Africa over the next 20 years.

Expert speaks on La Niña | 18 Jan 2008
Is La Niña to blame for the poor weather and the flooding? Climate expert Dr Adam Scaife explains.

UN Climate Change Summit, Bali
Our climate change experts are playing a major role in a summit aimed at establishing a worldwide policy to tackle our changing climate.

Climate change adaptation for UK businesses (PDF, 157 kb)
Met Office Hadley Centre in conjunction with Met Office Consulting have worked with the CBI Task Force on climate change to produce a report which identifies how businesses will need to adapt to our changing climate, recognising both the risks and opportunities of climate change.

Climate research

The climate system
Weather and climate have a profound influence on life on Earth, find out about the basics.

Climate change projections
Key results from climate-change experiments conducted using Met Office computer models of the climate system.

Climate monitoring data sets
The Met Office Hadley Centre receives, quality controls, and archives large amounts of observed climate data used for monitoring the climate, in studies of the causes of climate change and in climate modelling.

Types of climate models used in the Met Office Hadley Centre
Detailed three-dimensional representations of major components of the climate system are mostly run on the Met Office's NEC SX-6 supercomputers.

Carbon cycle
The role of the carbon cycle in climate change, how the models represent it, and what the results are when the cycle is included in climate simulations.

IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
The Met Office plays a key part in this internationally important process.