Ed Miliband: Climate change threatens British way of life

Telegraph

5 hours ago

The British way of life is 'under threat' because of climate change, Ed Miliband has claimed.
The Energy Secretary suggested that those who opposed Labour's approach to green policy would be 'betraying future generations' by inaction.
Mr Miliband made the comments in response to a Met Office report that found that Britain has twice as many extremely hot days a year than it did at the end of the 20th century.
The State of the Climate report revealed data that show there are now 42 days a year which are more than 5C hotter than the average temperature between 1961 and 1990.
These anomalously warm days only occurred 20 times, on average, for each year during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Responding to the findings, the Energy Secretary said: 'Our British way of life is under threat.
'Whether it is extreme heat, droughts, flooding, we can see it with our own eyes, that it's already happening, and we need to act.'
Describing the results as a 'stark warning', he added: '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.'
It comes after it emerged that the Government will unveil plans for £700 million of taxpayer-funded subsidies to encourage the public to buy more electric vehicles (EVs).
Labour has retaind Conservative plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, which will force motorists to switch to electric-powered vehicles.
But Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, admitted that she did not own an EV herself, which she said was down to living in a terraced house without a driveway.
She told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: 'Like millions of people in this country – I bought a new car about six years ago – I'm thinking about the next car that I will purchase and it will definitely be an EV.'
Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, accused Mr Miliband of wanting to 'send us back to the dark ages'.
He told The Telegraph that the comments represented 'total twaddle by scaremonger-in-chief Miliband'.
Mr Tice added: 'The climate has always changed and always will. Much better and cheaper that we adapt to it sensibly rather than arrogantly think we can stop the power of the sun and volcanoes. Miliband's answer is to send us back to the dark ages, like cavemen.'
Analysis from the Met Office also shows that the number of days 8C above average have tripled to nine, and 10C or hotter days are up four-fold to three a year.
Extreme heat is now much more common in the UK and a separate Met Office study recently found summers could now conceivably reach 45C.
However, the average temperature is also rising with the 2024 average temperature in the UK being 9.8C, up from 8.3C for the 1961 – 1980 average.
The State of the Climate report is an annual publication from the Met Office which provides a 10-year 'snapshot of the UK's current climate from a climate change perspective'.
It is a peer-reviewed study published in the International Journal of Climatology.
Its figures show sea levels around Britain are rising quicker than the global average for the first time and showing signs of speeding up.
UK waters have risen by 19.5 cm (8 inches) since 1901, the study found, with two thirds occurring in the last 32 years. The last three years have also seen the biggest annual rises on record.
A 2018 forecast suggests UK sea levels could rise by around two metres by 2100.
Long-standing weather records
Data on rainfall and temperature records in the UK reach back to the 19th century and the network of on-the-ground weather stations allow for long-term analysis of climate trends.
The authors of the report say that extreme weather conditions are becoming more common, including wetter conditions in the winter and hotter temperatures in the summer.
This is driven by climate change and increases the risk of heatwaves and floods, the scientists say.
In the last ten years there has been a 50 per cent rise in how many months counties are seeing twice the average level of rainfall, it found.
The study also found that snow is becoming increasingly rare in Britain, with snow events now 'less frequent and severe than they were in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s'.
Chloe Brimicombe, science engagement manager at the Royal Meteorological Society, told The Telegraph: 'With our changing climate we are seeing winters becoming wetter and summers becoming hotter. We are seeing faster changes between two weather patterns.
'Extreme weather has become more common because as we shift the mean of events, those that are more extreme become more likely.
'The implication is that throughout the year we are likely to see flooding in the winter impacting properties, and heatwaves and drought in the summer impacting crops and the health of individuals.
'Weather changes from day to day, but the overall climate of the UK is different from that of the 20th century.'