DEPARTMENT FOR
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (News Release ref :
456/07) issued by The Government News Network on 7 December 2007
The first report
from a programme that will allow people to explore projections of
climate change through the 21st century was welcomed by
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn today.
The £2 million Defra-funded programme consists of five reports
and an interactive website, known as UKCIP08. The project will
bring together climate science from the Met Office to provide
information to decision makers, academics and others, on the
current climate, and possible future changes. Its interactive
website will provide customisable climate change projections when
it launches in late 2008.
The first report from UKCIP08, The climate of the United Kingdom
and recent trends, was published today. It states:
* Central England Temperature has risen by about a degree Celsius
since the 1970s, with 2006 being the warmest yet. It is likely
that there has been a significant influence from human activity on
the recent warming.
* Sea surface temperatures around the UK coast have risen over
the past three decades, by about 0.7C.
* Severe windstorms around the UK have become more frequent in
the past few decades, but no higher than levels seen at the
beginning of the last century.
Regardless of strides taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
the inertia of the climate system commits us to some change over
the next few decades.
Hilary Benn said:
"As the range of countries gathered in Bali shows, climate
change is the biggest challenge we face as a global community and
to which no-one is immune. That is why we need the conference to
agree to start negotiations on a new global deal.
"This report shows that climate change is happening in the
UK - and it's happening now. All of us - governments,
businesses and individuals - need to be able to plan for the
future. This groundbreaking initiative, when completed in late
2008, will be designed to help people investigate the possible
future climate at the click of a mouse.
"It will put us face to face with what the climate might
look like in our own back yard and challenge us to think about how
to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change."
Notes to editors
1. 'The climate of the United Kingdom and recent
trends' contains information about key climate variables from
1961 to 2006. It provides maps and graphs to show long term
averages and changes between 1961 and 2006 with information
presented annually and by season. Most of the data is from the Met
Office, with additional material from the Climatic Research Unit
at the University of East Anglia, Proudman Oceanographic
Laboratory and IPCC.
2. 'The climate of the United Kingdom and recent
trends' is the first of five reports to be launched under the
umbrella of the UK 21st Century Climate Change Scenarios - known
as UKCIP08. The final outputs, including an interactive website,
will be released in late 2008, and will provide the most
comprehensive package of climate change information available for
the UK to date. A pdf of 'The climate of the United Kingdom
and observed trends' is available from the UK Climate Impacts
Programme at http://www.ukcip.org.uk. The
data underlying the report can be accessed at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/hadleycentre/obsdata/ukcip/index.html.
3. Modelled on an earlier report produced for Scotland by the
Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research,
'The climate of the United Kingdom and recent trends'
summarises in one place up-to-date and scientifically robust
information on observed climate trends, concentrating on the
period since 1961, but including some data from as far back as 1780.
4. The report reiterates earlier findings that Central England
Temperature has risen by about a degree Celsius since the 1970s,
with 2006 being the warmest on record. It is likely that there has
been a significant influence from human activity on the recent warming.
5. Current climate and recent trends are illustrated for regions
of the UK using maps, graphs and tables for eleven climate
variables, including temperature, precipitation, days of rain,
days of frost and humidity.
6. The UKCIP08 project will be the result of a five-year
programme including extensive user consultation. It is being
driven by new requirements from increasingly-sophisticated
adaptation planners. The project will bring together climate
change projections from the Met Office in an accessible way for
those interested in assessing climate change impacts or planning
adaptation strategies. The UKCIP08 reports will explain in detail
the methodology used to create the data, including assumptions,
limitations and uncertainties inherent in the data. It will also
provide extensive User Guidance, with examples of what it should,
and should not, be used for, so that users can make an informed
choice of its suitability for their needs.
7. The UKCIP08 web interface will provide information in three ways:
key headline messages and commonly used statistics published
materials such as reports, graphs and maps, customisable climate
projections (through a web interface being designed by the British
Atmospheric Data Centre) and a weather generator tool, the latter
under development by the University of Newcastle and UEA.
8. UKCIP08 is being funded by Defra on behalf of the UK
Government and Devolved Administrations. 'The climate of the
United Kingdom and recent trends' has been written by the Met
Office Hadley Centre with input from the University of East
Anglia, Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, UK Climate Impacts
Programme, Defra, Devolved Administrations and organisations
represented on the UKCIP08 steering group and users' panel.
9. This UKCIP08 report is published by the Met Office Hadley
Centre. It is the first of the UKCIP08 scientific reports, and
should be referenced as: Jenkins, G.J., Perry, M.C., and Prior,
M.J.0 (2007).
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