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Government action
The UK Climate Projections bring home the message that the UK's climate
is changing. Rising global temperatures will bring changes in weather
patterns, rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of
extreme weather.
To avoid making the problem worse, cutting carbon emissions globally is a priority. But a certain amount of climate change is inevitable.
Adaptation
Individuals, businesses, Government and public authorities will need to adapt behaviour to respond to the challenges of climate change.
The UK Government's Adapting to Climate Change Programme is a cross-Government programme, co-ordinated by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The Programme's objectives are to:
- develop a more robust and comprehensive evidence base about the impacts and consequences of climate change.
- raise awareness of the need to take action now and help others to take action.
- work across Government at the national, regional and local level to make sure the need to adapt to climate change is embedded into Government policies, programme and systems
- evaluate progress and take steps to ensure effective delivery of the Programme's objectives.
Mitigation
The UK has led the world by passing the Climate Change Act which sets statutory targets to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. The Act also created a system of binding carbon budgets to cover five-year periods, set up to 15 years ahead. It sets a target to achieve at least a 34% reduction in emissions by 2022 (which will increase to 42% if there is an ambitious global deal).
To avoid the impacts of climate change becoming severe, a global agreement is needed to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to a level which avoids dangerous climate change.
What defines dangerous climate change has to be a societal decision. The EU has set a target to limit global mean surface temperature rise to 2⁰C above the pre-industrial level. It is based on the knowledge that temperature increases of more than 2⁰C will result in very costly adaptation measures, huge impacts on water availability, food security and ecosystems and unacceptably high risks of irreversible events (such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet). This is a very challenging goal – global emissions must start to fall in the next decade and be at least 50% below 1990 levels by 2050.
Internationally preparations are underway for a global, comprehensive and long-term framework under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The annual Conference of the Parties is due to take place in Copenhagen in December 2009, where countries from around the world will negotiate a new deal on action to tackle climate change. For more information on what the UK Government is doing to prepare for Copenhagen, visit the DECC website.
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