March 25, 2014

UK climate impacts

The publication date of the next instalment of the IPCC Assessment Report – Working Group 2: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability  is Monday 31^st March 2014.

Climate change will affect the planet in different ways.  How confidently can we predict what will happen to the UK, when we are such a tiny part of the global picture?  How vulnerable is the UK to climate change?  Was the wet winter a sign of things to come?  And what other impacts can we expect – on our agriculture, our coastlines, and our health?

Scientists came to the SMC to put the UK’s situation into the context of a warming world.

Speakers: 

Dr Richard Betts, Head of impacts at the Met Office Hadley Centre and a Lead Author of WG2 Chapter 4: Terrestrial and Inland Water Systems

Prof Andrew Challinor, Professor of Climate Impacts at the University of Leeds and a Lead Author of WG2 Chapter 7: Food Production Systems and Food Security

Prof Andy Haines, Professor of Public Health & Primary Care at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a Review Editor of WG2 Chapter 11: Human Health

Dr Sally Brown, Research Fellow in Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton

Prof Stephen Belcher, Head of the Met Office Hadley Centre

Prof Nigel Arnell, Professor of Climate Change Science and Director of the Walker Institute at the University of Reading and a Lead Author of WG2 Chapter 3: Freshwater Resources

Prof Jim Hall, Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford