Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has warned that the British way of life is “under threat” following the release of a landmark climate report showing extreme weather has become the norm across the UK, with the nation warming faster than at any point in at least 300 years.
The State of the UK Climate 2024 report, published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology, reveals the country has warmed at approximately 0.25°C per decade and is now 1.24°C warmer than the 1961-1990 average, with sea levels rising faster than the global average for the first time.
“Our British way of life is under threat,” Mr Miliband told PA news agency during a visit to a wetland restoration project at Hinksey Heights, Oxfordshire.
Whether it is extreme heat, droughts, flooding, we can see it actually with our own eyes, that it’s already happening, and we need to act,” he said. That’s why the Government has a central mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and tackle the climate crisis.
The Met Office report shows 2024 was provisionally the fourth warmest year on record for the UK, with all top ten warmest years occurring since 2000. The year included the warmest May and warmest spring on record, though these have already been surpassed by 2025’s temperatures.
Mike Kendon, Met Office climate scientist and lead author of the report, said the pace of change was unprecedented. “Every year that goes by is another upward step on the warming trajectory our climate is on,” he said.
“It’s the extremes of temperature and rainfall that is changing the most, and that’s of profound concern, and that’s going to continue in the future,” Mr Kendon added.
The report reveals alarming statistics about temperature extremes. The hottest summer days have warmed about twice as much as average summer days in parts of the UK over the past decade. The number of days with temperatures 5°C above the 1961-1990 average has doubled, whilst days 10°C above average have quadrupled.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed, who accompanied Mr Miliband to Oxfordshire, said the report “lays absolutely bare the damaging impact of climate change on people living in this country.
The ministers visited the alkaline fen restoration project, where conservationists explained how the rare habitat helps boost wetland biodiversity and sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
We’re tackling the problem of nature loss and also we’re tackling the problem of climate change at the same time,” Mr Reed said, defending the Government’s environmental record against criticism.
England and Wales experienced their wettest winter on record from October 2023 to March 2024, spanning more than 250 years of records. Flooding affected Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, the West Midlands and eastern Scotland.
Dr Svetlana Jevrejeva from the National Oceanography Centre revealed that UK sea levels are now rising faster than the global average, with tide gauge records showing acceleration from 1.5mm annually in the early 20th century to between 3.0-5.2mm per year over the past three decades.
“This extra sea level rise contribution is leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme sea levels and an intensification of coastal hazards,” Dr Jevrejeva warned.
The report documented how nature is struggling to adapt. Spring events in 2024 occurred earlier than average for 12 of 13 monitored indicators, with frogspawn appearing and blackbirds nesting at the earliest dates since records began in 1999.
Met Office Chief Scientist Professor Stephen Belcher emphasised the urgency: “We are experiencing more severe weather events in the UK due to climate change. They are a potent reminder of our responsibility to citizens now, and to future generations.”
The data shows winter rainfall has increased 16% compared to 1961-1990, whilst air and ground frosts have declined steadily since the 1980s, with more than two weeks’ fewer air frosts in the most recent decade.
Professor Liz Bentley, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, called the findings “clear and urgent signals of our changing climate” that demanded immediate action.
Mr Miliband directed criticism at opponents of Labour’s green policies: “Unless we act on the cause of what is happening, the cause of what is changing our climate, then we will be betraying future generations.
The Government faces scrutiny over its environmental approach one year into office, with concerns about planning reforms potentially sidelining nature. Mr Reed defended their actions, citing increased funding for sustainable farming and development of a nature restoration fund.
“We’d become one of the most nature-depleted countries on earth,” Mr Reed said. “This Government is calling time on that decline.”
The report confirms that climate records are being broken with increasing frequency. Since 2011, six of the twelve months have seen new all-time UK temperature records, whilst no months have set new minimum temperature records this century.
UK near-coast sea surface temperatures are now 0.3°C warmer than a decade ago and nearly a degree warmer than 1961-1990, contributing to marine ecosystem changes and coastal impacts.
The findings underscore that extreme weather events, once considered exceptional, have become routine features of Britain’s climate, fundamentally altering the nation’s environmental landscape and threatening traditional ways of life.
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Image Credit:
Photo of Ed Miliband visiting Vaillant by Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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