Climate change

“The consequences of climate change now include, among others, intense droughts, water and food scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity (IPCC, 2022).”

“As the planet continues to rise in global temperature leaders from around the globe agreed that limiting global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius would help us avoid the worst climate impacts and maintain a liveable climate (UN, 2023).”

Since the pre-industrial period the global temperature has risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius which shows the need for global sustainable action now. The goal is to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius to limit adverse/extreme weather conditions and unsustainable living conditions.

It might seem like a small change in temperature however on the larger scale such as the globe small changes in temperature can upset the natural cycles that balances the climate such as our water cycle and carbon cycle.

For the UK and the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, climate change means warmer and wetter winters, hotter and drier summers and more frequent and intense weather extremes. The UK government and many local authorities have now declared climate emergencies and begun taking steps to combat the climate crisis.

See what we are doing to combat the climate crisis in the next section.

Further information

You can learn more about UK climate change on the Gov.UK web site.