‘Profound concern’ as scientists say extreme heat ‘now the norm’ in UK. Increasing frequency of heatwaves and flooding raises fears over health, infrastructure and how society functions

 

Weather records clearly show the UK’s climate is different now compared with just a few decades ago. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Shutterstock

by Damian Carrington Environment editor

 

 

Record-breaking extreme weather is the new norm in the UK, scientists have said, showing that the country is firmly in the grip of the climate crisis.

The hottest days people endure have dramatically increased in frequency and severity, and periods of intense rain have also ramped up, data from hundreds of weather stations shows. Heatwaves and floods leading to deaths and costly damage are of “profound concern” for health, infrastructure and the functioning of society, the scientists said.

The weather records clearly show the UK’s climate is different now compared with just a few decades ago, the scientists said, as a result of the carbon pollution emitted by burning fossil fuels.

The analysis found that the number of days with temperatures 5C above the average for 1961-1990 had doubled in the last 10 years. For days 8C above average, the number has trebled and for 10C above average it has quadrupled. The UK has also become 8% sunnier in the last decade.

The assessment also reported that rain had become more intense. The number of months where counties receive at least double the average rainfall has risen by 50% in the last 20 years. Much of the additional rain is falling in the months from October to March. That period in 2023-24 was the wettest ever, in records that span back to 1767, and resulted in flooding in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, the West Midlands and elsewhere.

The sea level around the UK is rising faster than the global average, the report said, which worsens the impact of coastal flooding.

Six hundred people are believed to have died due to the heatwave that hit England and Wales at the end of June. The soaring temperatures were made 100 times more likely by global heating, the scientists calculated. Two more heatwaves have followed in quick succession.

The government’s preparations to protect people from the escalating impacts of the climate crisis were condemned as “inadequate, piecemeal and disjointed” by official advisers in April.

Mike Kendon at the Met Office, who led the analysis, said: “Breaking records frequently and seeing these extremes, this is now the norm. We might not notice the change from one year to the next, but if we look back 10 years, or 30 years, we can see some really big changes. We’re moving outside the envelope of what we’ve known in the past.”

“The extremes have the greatest impact for our society, if we think about our infrastructure, our public health, and how we function,” he said. “So this is really of profound concern.”

The assessment, called the State of the UK Climate 2024 and published in the International Journal of Climatology, found the last three years were in the UK’s top five hottest years on record. The warmest spring on record was seen in 2024 although this has already been surpassed in 2025.

The UK has particularly long meteorological records and the Central England Temperature series is the longest instrumental record in the world. It shows that recent temperatures have far exceeded any in at least 300 years. However, today’s high temperatures are likely to be average by 2050, and cool by 2100, the scientists said.

Sea level around the UK has already risen by 19cm over the last century, as glaciers and ice sheets melt and the oceans absorb heat and expand. The rise is accelerating and is higher around the UK than globally, although scientists are yet to work out why. It could rise by up to 200cm by the end of the century, said Dr Svetlana Jevrejeva, at the National Oceanography Centre.

Storm winds can push seawater surges on to coasts and are most dangerous when they coincide with the highest tides. “The extra sea level rise [due to global heating] is leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme sea levels and an intensification of coastal hazards,” said Jevrejeva. “It is only a matter of time until the UK is next in the path of a major storm surge event.”

While heat records are increasingly being broken, cold weather events are becoming less common. For example, days with air frosts have fallen by 14 per year in the last decade, compared with the 1931-1990 average.

The UK’s changed climate has also affected nature, the report said. The earliest ever frogspawn and blackbird nesting was seen in 2024, in records that began in 1999. All but one of the 13 natural events monitored were earlier than average in 2024, from the first lesser celandine flower to the first elder leaves. The changes mean species that depend on others, such as for food or pollination, risk getting out of sync, said Dr Judith Garforth at the Woodland Trust.

Prof Liz Bentley, at the Royal Meteorological Society, said the report showed the urgent need to make the UK resilient to climate-fuelled extreme weather: “This report is not just a record of change, but a call to action.”

Deadly weekend heat in England ‘100 times more likely’ due to climate crisis. High temperatures likely to cause deaths and will worsen in future as global heating intensifies, scientists warn

Researchers say the 32C expected this weekend in the south-east would have been expected only once every 2,500 years without the climate crisis. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

 Damian Carrington

The dangerous 32C heat that will be endured by people in the south-east of England on Saturday will have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis, scientists have calculated.

Global heating, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is making every heatwave more likely and more intense. The 32C (89.6F) day forecast on Saturday would have been expected only once every 2,500 years without the climate crisis, the researchers said, and June heatwaves are now about 2-4C (3.6-7.2F) hotter than in the past.

 

The heat is expected to cause premature deaths, particularly among older and vulnerable people. More than 10,000 people died before their time in summer heatwaves between 2020 and 2024, according to the UK Health Security Agency, and the UK government has been heavily criticised for failing to properly prepare people for extreme weather.

Prolonged heat is especially dangerous as it gives no time for people’s bodies to cool off. Maximum temperatures in the south-east are expected to be above 28C for three consecutive days. The scientists said this heatwave was made 10 times more likely by the climate crisis.

Dr Ben Clarke at Imperial College London, who was part of the research team, said the culprit for the extreme heat was clear. “This weather just wouldn’t have been a heatwave without human-induced warming,” he said.

Climate breakdown drove the annual global temperature in 2024 to a new record and carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil and gas are still rising. If that continues for just two more years, passing the internationally agreed limit of 1.5C above preindustrial levels will be inevitable, intensifying the extreme weather already taking lives in the UK and across the globe.

Clarke said: “With every fraction of a degree of warming, the UK will experience hotter, more dangerous heatwaves. That means more heat deaths, more pressure on the NHS, more transport disruptions, and tougher work conditions. The best way to avoid a future of relentless heat is by shifting to renewable energy.”

Dr Friederike Otto, also at Imperial College London, said: “It is really important to highlight this early summer heatwave because the impacts of heat are still severely underestimated, and the UK is not prepared for this type of weather.” The Climate Change Committee, the government’s official advisers, said in April that the UK’s preparations for adapting to a changing climate were “inadequate, piecemeal and disjointed”.

Otto said: “Heatwaves are called the silent killer, because we don’t see people dropping dead on the street, but killers they are. In Europe in 2022, more than 60,000 people died in the summer from extreme heat.”

Maja Vahlberg at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre said: “Sadly most people die from heat indoors and alone, especially older people and those with underlying health conditions, such as lung or heart disease.”

Prof Mike Tipton, a physiologist at Portsmouth University, said: “The human body is not designed to tolerate prolonged exposure to this sort of extreme heat. It is undeniable that climate change is now costing British lives. Those politicians and commentators who pour scorn on climate action should reflect on this fact because, until we stop emitting greenhouse gases, these episodes are only likely to become more extreme.”

The extremely dry spring, combined with soaring temperatures, means the UK is also facing a high risk of wildfires, said Theodore Keeping, also at Imperial College London: “We’ve already seen the highest burnt area on record in the UK this year.” People should take extreme care with fires, barbecues and cigarettes, he said.

 

The rapid study of the role of global heating in the predicted weekend heatwave compared the likelihood of the high temperatures in today’s hotter climate with that in the cooler preindustrial period. The team, part of the World Weather Attribution group, was also able to reuse detailed climate modelling undertaken for a similar heatwave in 2022, speeding up their conclusions.

They said older people were at greatest risk from the high temperatures, but that others with existing vulnerabilities could also be affected, with the effectiveness of some medications being changed by the heat or affecting people’s ability to cool down.

Sweating is how the body cools so it is vital to drink plenty of water, the researchers said. Closing windows and curtains during the day and opening them in the cool of the night can help keep temperatures in homes down, they said. A recent study estimated that 80% of UK homes overheat in the summer.

Temperatures in the UK rose above 40C for the first time in 2022. The Met Office said on Wednesday that the UK had a 50/50 chance of temperatures soaring to 40C again in the next 12 years as the climate crisis worsens and that 45C could not be ruled out.

Extreme heat is more deadly than floods, earthquakes and hurricanes combined, according to a report by the insurance giant Swiss Re published on 12 June. “Up to half a million people globally succumb to the effects of extreme heat each year,” it said.

“Extreme heat used to be considered the ‘invisible peril’ because the impacts are not as obvious as of other natural perils,” said Jérôme Haegeli, chief economist at Swiss Re. “With a clear trend to longer, hotter heatwaves, it is important we shine a light on the true cost to human life, our economy, infrastructure, agriculture and healthcare.”

 

 

Today’s newsletter focuses on Britain’s hot, stinking water mess — from water shortages to sewage problems.

 

The bed of Woodhead Reservoir partially revealed by a falling water level, near Glossop, northern England in May. Photographer: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

 

The messy details

By Joe Wertz and Priscila Azevedo Rocha While England is often associated with rain, the country has managed to end up with short supply of water thanks in part to climate change. The problem was on full display this week: Reservoir levels across England fell far below the norm during the driest spring in more than a century. Reservoirs were 77% full at the end of May compared with the long-term average of 93%, the UK’s Environment Agency said. This spring was the UK’s sunniest and warmest on record, and England’s driest March-May period since 1893, the agency said. While wetter conditions have since provided some relief, it’s unlikely to plug the deficit as extreme heat and more dry weather looms.

The hot, dry spring has been fueled by an unusual rise in high-pressure patterns that scientists say have amplified long-term global warming. The news comes at time when water mismanagement was already grabbing headlines across Britain.  Things have been particularly bad at Thames Water, which supplies about a quarter of the UK population, and has been on a long downward financial slope. It came close to running out of money several times before finally unlocking an emergency loan in March. There was hope for a turnaround when alternative asset manager KKR & Co. made a bid to invest £4 billion ($5.4 billion) in Thames Water earlier this year. Only this week the US infrastructure giant realized there was little upside to a deal and withdrew its offer, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Read More: KKR Quit Thames Bid After It Saw Little Upside to a Rescue The crisis follows decades of poor regulatory oversight that allowed water company owners to pay themselves billions of pounds in dividends instead of using the money to maintain the infrastructure.  Meanwhile, regulator Ofwat flexed new powers today when it banned six water companies from paying bonuses to senior executives who haven’t done enough to tackle pollution.   Water companies are facing widespread public anger over sewage leaks into rivers and lakes throughout Britain. Photographer: Carl Court/Getty Images   Ofwat’s authority to stop “unjustified” payments for poor environmental and customer performance is part of new legislation that comes into come into force today. Bosses at Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, Anglian Water, Wessex Water, United Utilities and Southern Water are not permitted to receive bonuses with immediate effect, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.  Stopping bonuses is meant to address the public perception that company bosses are rewarded even if a firm is pumping waste into waterways illegally. Public anger has been further fueled by bill increases of as much as 47% in April while water companies have awarded over £112 million in bonuses and incentives over the last decade, according to government figures. --With assistance from Claire Ruckin and Giulia Morpurgo

Com fechamento de última usina, Reino Unido se torna primeiro país do G7 a abrir mão do carvão

 

Usina termelétrica a carvão de Ratcliffe-on-Soar, na Inglaterra - Molly Darlington - 26.set.2024/Reuters

 

O mais poluente dos combustíveis fósseis, carvão deixará de gerar eletricidade no país após mais de 140 anos 

 

Susanna Twidale

Reuters

Com o fechamento da usina Ratcliffe-on-Soar nesta segunda-feira (30), o Reino Unido se tornará o primeiro país do G7, grupo que reúne as nações mais desenvolvidas do mundo, a abrir mão da produção de energia a carvão.

O momento encerra mais de 140 anos do mais poluente entre os combustíveis fósseis para o fornecimento de eletricidade no país, que foi o berço da Revolução Industrial —considerada um marco no aumento de emissões de gases de efeito estufa pelas atividades humanas.

 

Em 2015, o Reino Unido anunciou planos para fechar usinas a carvão dentro da década seguinte como parte de medidas mais amplas para atingir suas metas climáticas. Naquela época, quase 30% da eletricidade do país vinha do carvão, mas isso caiu para pouco mais de 1% no ano passado.

"O Reino Unido provou que é possível eliminar a energia a carvão em uma velocidade sem precedentes", disse Julia Skorupska, chefe do secretariado da Aliança Powering Past Coal, um grupo de cerca de 60 governos nacionais que buscam acabar com essa fonte de energia.

Os cortes no carvão ajudaram a reduzir as emissões de gases de efeito estufa do Reino Unido, que caíram a mais da metade desde 1990.

 

O Reino Unido, que tem como meta atingir emissões líquidas zero até 2050, também planeja descarbonizar o restante do setor de eletricidade até 2030, o que exigirá um rápido aumento na energia renovável, como eólica e solar.

"A era do carvão pode estar acabando, mas uma nova era de bons empregos na área de energia para nosso país está apenas começando", disse o ministro da energia, Michael Shanks, em comunicado.

 

As emissões provenientes da energia representam cerca de 75% das emissões totais de gases de efeito estufa e cientistas afirmam que o uso de combustíveis fósseis deve ser reduzido para atingir as metas estabelecidas no Acordo de Paris.

Em abril, os principais países industrializados do G7 concordaram em eliminar a energia a carvão na primeira metade da próxima década, mas também deram alguma flexibilidade para economias fortemente dependentes do carvão, o que gerou críticas de grupos ambientais.

"Ainda há muito trabalho a ser feito para garantir que a meta de 2035 seja atingida e antecipada para 2030, especialmente no Japão, nos EUA e na Alemanha", afirmou Christine Shearer, analista de pesquisa do Global Energy Monitor.

A energia a carvão ainda representa mais de 25% da eletricidade na Alemanha e mais de 30% da energia no Japão.

                                         Pequim - China

No ano passado, o consumo de carvão no mundo chegou a um recorde, com 8,53 bilhões de toneladas queimadas, segundo a Agência Internacional de Energia.

A entidade ressaltou que em 2023 houve crescimento do consumo na China, com aumento de 220 milhões de toneladas (4,9%) na comparação com 2022, e na Índia, com avanço de 98 milhões de toneladas (8%). Também foram queimadas 23 milhões de toneladas a mais na Indonésia, o que representou um aumento de 11%, segundo o órgão.

 

 

Biomass power station produced four times emissions of UK coal plant, says report

 

Drax was responsible for 11.5m tonnes of CO2 last year, or nearly 3% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

 Drax received £22bn in subsidies despite being UK’s largest emitter in 2023, though company rejects ‘flawed’ research

 

The Drax power station was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired plant last year, despite taking more than £0.5bn in clean-energy subsidies in 2023, according to a report.

The North Yorkshire power plant, which burns wood pellets imported from North America to generate electricity, was revealed as Britain’s single largest carbon emitter in 2023 by a report from the climate thinktank Ember.

The figures show that Drax, which has received billions in subsidies since it began switching from coal to biomass in 2012, was responsible for 11.5m tonnes of CO₂ last year, or nearly 3% of the UK’s total carbon emissions.

Drax produced four times more carbon dioxide than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, which is due to close in September. Drax also produced more emissions last year than the next four most polluting power plants in the UK combined, according to the report.

Frankie Mayo, an analyst at Ember, said: “Burning wood pellets can be as bad for the environment as coal; supporting biomass with subsidies is a costly mistake.”

The company has claimed almost £7bn from British energy bills to support its biomass generation since 2012, even though burning wood pellets for power generation releases more emissions for each unit of electricity generated than burning gas or coal, according to Ember and many scientists. In 2023, the period covered by the Ember report, it received £539m.

 The government is considering the company’s request for billpayers to foot the cost of supporting its power plant beyond the subsidy scheme’s deadline in 2027 so it can keep burning wood for power until the end of the decade.

 

Drax has won the support of the government thanks to claims that its generation is “carbon neutral” because the trees that are felled to produce its wood pellets absorb as much carbon dioxide while they grow as they emit when they are burned in its power plant.

The company plans to fit carbon-capture technology at Drax using more subsidies, to create a “bioenergy with carbon capture and storage” (BECCS) project and become the first “carbon-negative” power plant in the world by the end of the decade.

A spokesperson for the company dismissed the thinktank’s findings as “flawed” and accused its authors of ignoring its “widely accepted and internationally recognised approach to carbon accounting”.

“The technology that underpins BECCS is proven, and it is the only credible large-scale way of generating secure renewable power and delivering carbon removals,” the spokesperson added.

A government spokesperson said the report “fundamentally misrepresents” how biomass emissions are measured.

“The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change is clear that biomass sourced in line with strict sustainability criteria can be used as a low-carbon source of energy. We will continue to monitor biomass electricity generation to ensure it meets required standards,” the spokesman said.

Climate authorities, including the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UK’s Climate Change Committee, which provides official advice to ministers, have included BECCS in their long-term forecasts for how governments can meet their climate targets.

The government’s own spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, has warned that ministers have handed a total of £22bn in billpayer-backed subsidies to burn wood for electricity despite being unable to prove the industry meets sustainability standards.

Mayo said: “Burning wood for power is an expensive risk that limits UK energy independence and has no place in the journey to net zero. True energy security comes from homegrown wind and solar, a healthy grid and robust planning for how to make the power system flexible and efficient.”

The FTSE 100 owner of the Drax power plant made profits of £500m over the first half of this year, helped by biomass subsidies of almost £400m over this period. It handed its shareholders a windfall of £300m for the first half of the year.

 

 

UK homes install ‘record number’ of solar panels and heat pumps

TheGuardian - Head of industry standards body says more people are turning to renewable technology as energy costs grow

 Solar panels on a narrowboat in Henley-on-Thames. An average of 20,000 households installed solar panels every month this year. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Shutterstock

 

British households are making more green energy upgrades than ever before after installing a record number of solar panels and heat pumps in the first half of the year, according to the industry’s official standards body.

The industry figures show there were more green energy installations in June alone than in any six-month period in previous years.

On average, more than 20,000 households installed solar panels every month this year, while the number of homes installing heat pumps reached 3,000 a month for the first time, according to the data.

Each month of 2023 was a record month for battery technologies, as installation figures consistently surpassed the month before, bringing the total number of batteries installed in homes and businesses across the UK to more than 1,000 in 2023 so far.

The industry’s accreditation body, MCS, said the green energy boom has put households on track to install more renewable energy than the last record set in 2012, when many raced to install solar panels before government subsidies were reduced.

Ian Rippin, the chief executive of MCS, said: “As the cost of energy continues to grow, we are seeing more people turn to renewable technology to generate their own energy and heat at home.”

Small-scale renewable energy installations at homes and businesses across the UK now have a total capacity of 4 gigawatts (GW), greater than the nuclear power plant under construction at Hinkley Point and almost double the capacity of Europe’s biggest gas power plant near Pembroke in Wales.

“We need to continue to push this expansion to meet our shared national ambitions to reach net zero by 2050. More consumers have the confidence to invest in small-scale renewables now than ever, but we have to make that transition even easier,” Rippin said.

The UK government has set targets to reach 70GW of solar capacity by 2035 and to install 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028. But the uptake of heat pumps has fallen far short of the government’s aim, despite £5,000 grants to reduce the cost of replacing an old gas boiler.

In total there were 17,920 heat pump installations in the first six months of 2023, according to MCS data, meaning that if the same pace continued over the second half of the year, heat pump installations would reach just 6% of the government’s target.

Bean Beanland, the director of external affairs at the Heat Pump Federation, said there was “a tremendous job of work to do” to ensure that heat pump technology becomes mainstream over the remainder of this decade.

The accreditation body believes that one of the biggest barriers to the government’s heat pump ambitions is the need to recruit enough qualified, skilled installers to meet the demand for trustworthy advice and installations.

There are 1,500 heat pump installation companies certified in the UK, but an estimated 50,000 workers will be needed to meet government targets. So far this year, more than 850 new contractors have become MCS certified, more than the number who signed up during the whole of 2022.

Beanland added: “It is essential that the lowest-carbon heat becomes the lowest-cost heat, so that homeowners and landlords can justify the transition away from polluting fossil fuels. If this is coupled to a genuine affordability and future funding package, then households will be able to contribute to climate change mitigation with confidence and at a cost that is fair to all.”

 

Nytimes link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/12/climate/wind-solar-clean-energy.html

 

 

Engajado nas causas ambientais desde os anos 1970, rei Charles III pode influenciar em questões sobre clima e meio ambiente

 Novo rei fez seu primeiro discurso abordando assuntos como poluição e lixo há 53 anos; atualmente, é engajado na produção de orgânicos, contra o desmatamento, e ainda usa biocombustível e energia de fonte solar 

 

Rei Charles III criou diversos projetos voltados a assuntos ambientais  

Letícia Naomeda CNN*

em São Paulo

 

O rei Charles III, sucessor da Rainha Elizabeth II, coroado neste sábado (6), passa a assumir novas responsabilidades e compromissos como chefe de Estado do Reino Unido.

Isso implica que ele deve deixar de lado algumas funções de quando era príncipe. Entre elas, seu ativismo em causas ambientais, o que inclui a defesa da natureza, agricultura orgânica e a luta contra as mudanças climáticas.

Mas, pode ser que use seu poder de influência para que a agenda ecológica avance.

Leonardo Paz, pesquisador do Núcleo de Prospecção e Inteligência Internacional da FGV, explica que esse interesse de Charles III por causas ambientais surgiu porque ele era um jovem monarca que queria contribuir e mostrar sua opinião sobre determinados temas. Isso coincidiu com um período em que o tema ambiental começa a ser assunto. “Antes de a questão climática ser uma moda, uma tendência, ele já estava falando sobre isso.”

Sua primeira aparição pública para discursar sobre o assunto ocorreu há 53 anos, em 19 de fevereiro de 1970, quando lançou o Ano Europeu de Conservação no País de Gales.

Charles abordou problemas que relacionados à questão da conservação, como o crescimento populacional, a escassez de recursos, a poluição, o lixo, e propôs algumas soluções, apesar de reconhecer em outro momento que a barreira humana pode impedir que elas aconteçam.

“Um dos problemas mais básicos são as pessoas. Por mais cuidadoso que você planeje ou proponha, inevitavelmente, em algum momento, você se deparará com a natureza humana e obstáculos impenetráveis de obstinação e preconceito. São dificuldades que devem ser vistas e levadas em consideração”, diz no discurso de 1970.

Paz explica que a fala do então príncipe ocorre no contexto em que a família real – uma Monarquia Constitucional – evitava ao máximo emitir opiniões. “Ele buscou alguns temas que julgava necessário, que chamava sua atenção e que ele queria estudar e se posicionar”, acrescenta.

Em sua primeira ação relacionada a isso, em 1985, ele converteu a Home Farm, que ficava próxima à sua propriedade de Highgrove, para a produção de agricultura orgânica, a transformando em 1990 na marca Duchy Originals.

O rei Charles III também se envolveu na área ambiental por meio da Prince’s Foundation – que busca o equilíbrio, a ordem e a relação dos seres humanos com a natureza –, Sustainable Markets, – criada para acelerar a transição do setor privado a um futuro sustentável – e uma TV voltada a documentários e outras produções sobre a área ecológica – a Re:TV.

O Prince’s Rainforest Project, fundado em 2007, foi criado com o objetivo de combater o desmatamento em florestas tropicais – como no Brasil – e, como consequência, o aumento das emissões de carbono. Charles III se sensibilizou mais com o desaparecimento das florestas após um painel intergovernamental que tratava do assunto.

 

 O então príncipe Charles e sua esposa, Duquesa da Cornualha, comemoram 21º aniversário da marca de alimentos orgânicos Duchy Originals, em setembro de 2013 / Dan Kitwood -WPA Pool/Getty Images

Influenciador?

Atuando há tantos anos na causa ambiental, a expectativa é que o novo rei exerça alguma influência para essas questões. “Tem um conjunto de ambientalistas que acham que o rei Charles acaba sendo um dos principais diplomatas da questão climática”, destaca Leonardo Paz, da FGV.

Pelo status que tem, além da compreensão sobre o tema, “ele tem capacidade de entrar em certo os círculos, de falar com certas pessoas, chefes de governo, líderes de indústria”, diz.

No caso do Brasil em particular, recentemente teve uma conversa com o presidente Lula por telefone, e busca uma parceria para aprofundar as discussões sobre as questões climáticas e do meio ambiente.

Mas agora, como o rei do Reino Unido, terá que tratar do assunto de outra forma. No caso da agricultura orgânica, por exemplo, sua marca Duchy Originals passará a ser comandada do príncipe William.

Apesar disso, o seu poder de influência pode dar luz à causa e, de certa forma, colocar o assunto em pauta no governo britânico. Ele não pode “propor uma política robusta como o primeiro-ministro faria e advogar em torno disso, mas ele tem capacidade de influenciar os políticos interessados nesse tema, que vão contar com um grande aliado que é o rei”, explica Paz.

Além disso, há o peso da opinião de um rei, “ainda mais no momento em que a opinião pública via mídia social, via imprensa, cada vez mais tem a capacidade de pressionar negócios, indústrias”.

Contradições

Apesar de toda essa preocupação com o meio ambiente e diversas ações realizadas, o especialista da FGV explica que Charles III vem sofrendo com críticas, especialmente às relacionadas ao uso de helicópteros e jatos, grandes emissores de gases do efeito estufa.

“Quando divulgamos coisas como o meio ambiente, em um contexto onde tudo que fazemos tem algum impacto no ambiente, vai ter sempre alguém que vai nos criticar em relação a essa ‘suposta hipocrisia'”, lembra Paz.

No entanto, o novo rei encontrou maneiras de mitigar seus hábitos não sustentáveis, ao adotar uma pegada de carbono mais consciente. Paz destaca que Charles converteu a matriz elétrica de algumas de suas propriedades para a solar e utiliza biocombustível em seus veículos, em vez de gasolina, por exemplo.

“No final das contas não tem jeito. Ainda mais uma pessoa que vive um estilo de vida da realiza britânica, sem dúvida, vai ter uma pegada de carbono intensa”.

*Sob supervisão de Ana Carolina Nunes. Com informações da CNN Brasil e de Julia Horowitz, da CNN Internacional.

 

Swallowed by the sea

 

Read a full version of this story on Bloomberg.com.

When Nicola Bayless’s parents bought a house in Happisburgh, an idyllic coastal village in Norfolk, England, they were told it would be 150 years before erosion of the nearby cliff might threaten it. “They said, ‘We’ll be long dead and so will you,’” Bayless says. “But here we are.” 

That was 23 years ago. Today Bayless’s house is on the second-to-last plot on the road; its front windows look out on an empty lot that used to be a neighbor’s home until it was demolished in October. Just beyond that is the cliff, which Bayless says has retreated by eight meters in the past 18 months. The erosion has happened so quickly that Google’s Street View of the road, last taken in 2009, still shows it disappearing into the distance beyond her house. In 2023, though, there’s nothing but a “Road Closed” barrier followed by a sheer drop.

On England’s east coast, locals have been fighting a losing battle against the sea for generations. In Happisburgh, which faces ferocious weather from its perch on the North Sea, an estimated 250 meters of land was lost to erosion between 1600 and 1850. Locals have grown accustomed to storms, landslides and sometimes deadly floods. But over the past few decades, things have been changing faster than residents expected, and scientists are trying to understand how global warming might be making the destruction worse. 

Left: Google’s Street View of Beach Road, last taken in 2009. Right: Beach Road in January 2023. The wooden gate on the right of each picture is the same. Photographer: Olivia Rudgard

Losing the place you call home to an inexorable process is a unique kind of grief, but in Happisburgh that grief is compounded by centuries of history. Axes, flints and other tools as much as 950,000 years old have been discovered on its beach, including a set of footprints dating back 800,000 years, the oldest found in Europe.

Happisburgh also boasts a 14th century church, a beautiful stretch of bucket-and-spade coastline and a lighthouse built in 1790. The village’s local pub, The Hill House, dates back to at least 1540 and once hosted Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle (it inspired his story “The Adventure of the Dancing Men”). The constant thump of the sea against the cliff is audible from its rooms, where leaflets tell guests The Hill House will be “preserved for as long as the sea does not engulf Happisburgh.” 

“This is our house and our business,” says Clive Stockton, who has owned the pub with his wife Sue for the past 31 years. “When this goes we are destitute.” Stockton estimates The Hill House has about 20 years left.

Clive Stockton has owned The Hill House with his wife for the past 31 years.  Photographer: Nick Ballon for Bloomberg Green

The problem is the cliff. In Happisburgh, and along the rest of a 21-mile stretch of north Norfolk coast, it’s made up of sand, clay and silt — not solid enough to hold back the volatile North Sea, where heavier rain, higher tides and rising sea levels are predicted due to climate change. By 2100 local sea levels are expected to increase by at least a foot, and as much as three feet. Coastal erosion maps published by the North Norfolk District Council show a large swathe of the village threatened by 2055. By 2105 both the pub and church will be underwater.

In the early 2000s, the district council decided not to renew the sea defenses protecting the village. Today there is a rock “bund,” crowdfunded by the community in the 1990s, that protects the foot of the cliff and bought residents some time. But other engineered defenses would cost many millions. Ironically, the cliff’s archaeological value has also earned it a special designation, “site of special scientific interest,” which means the land has to be allowed to erode so that further discoveries can emerge. 

Many residents are angry at the decision. “We do seem to be the patsy,” says Stockton. “We seem to be stuck with a pre-ordained decision that Happisburgh cannot be defended.” 

Rising sea levels are expected to change tides and wave heights, which could accelerate things. Heavier rain in a warmer climate can also lead to more cliff collapse, though the overall impact of climate change is complex and site-specific, says Laurent Amoudry, principal scientist at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre. Usually, natural features like dunes would have the space to move landwards while maintaining their size, but in the UK, “where very little on the coast is actually natural anymore… you don’t have the space to roll back,” Amoudry says. 

Happisburgh Beach, where erosion is rapidly changing the coastline. Photographer: Nick Ballon for Bloomberg Green

Britain’s Committee on Climate Change, a government advisory body, has been blunt in its assessment that many coastal communities like Happisburgh are “unviable.” Last year, a report found that almost 200,000 properties around England may have to be abandoned because they are in places where defenses are too expensive or technically impossible. 

“There are these difficult decisions to make. Our current approach is not sustainable in the long term under intensifying climate change and rising sea levels,” says Richard Dawson, a member of the committee and professor of earth systems engineering at Newcastle University. “We have to start to plan out for these transitions now.”

See more photos from Happisburgh on Bloomberg.com

Onda de calor mata mais de 1.000 em Portugal e Espanha, e incêndios se alastram pela Europa

França, Reino Unido e Itália também sofrem com recordes de temperaturas

MADRI | REUTERS e AFP

A onda de calor que atinge há quase uma semana o sul da Europa já deixou mais de 1.000 mortos apenas em Portugal e Espanha, além de uma série de incêndios florestais, que se alastram pelo continente.

Dados da Direção-Geral de Saúde de Portugal compilados na noite de sábado (16) apontavam a morte de 659 pessoas em meio à onda de calor nos sete dias anteriores, a maioria deles idosos. O pico de mortes ocorreu na quinta-feira (14), segundo o órgão, quando as temperaturas passaram dos 40ºC na maior parte do país —com recorde de 47ºC no distrito de Viseu, 300 km ao norte de Lisboa.

No mesmo dia, o Instituto de Saúde Carlos 3º, na Espanha, apontou 360 mortes relacionadas ao calor no país. Neste domingo (17), autoridades espanholas lutavam contra 20 incêndios ainda ativos e fora de controle em diferentes pontos do país. Na Galícia, na região noroeste, o fogo destruiu cerca de 4.500 hectares durante a semana.

Em Málaga, no sul, os bombeiros conseguiram estabilizar um incêndio na serra de Mijas que destruiu pelo menos 2.000 hectares. As chamas forçaram cerca de 3.000 pessoas a sair de casa, mas a maior parte delas já conseguiu retornar. Os britânicos William e Ellen McCurdy buscaram abrigo em um centro esportivo no sábado, quando o incêndio se aproximou. "Foi muito rápido, não levei muito a sério. Achei que eles tinham tudo sob controle e fiquei bastante surpreso quando o fogo parecia estar se movendo em nossa direção", disse William, 68.

A agência meteorológica da Espanha emitiu alertas para temperaturas máximas de 42ºC neste domingo nas regiões de Aragão, Navarra e La Rioja, no norte. Segundo a entidade, a onda de calor extremo deve terminar nesta segunda-feira (18), mas as temperaturas permanecerão "anormalmente altas".

Em Portugal, cerca de 1.000 bombeiros tentavam controlar 13 incêndios florestais e rurais no centro e no norte do país, o maior deles perto da cidade de Chaves. Quase todo o território apresentava um risco "máximo", "muito alto", ou "elevado" de incêndios neste domingo. Na última semana, o fogo destruiu entre 12 mil e 15 mil hectares, segundo cálculos oficiais.

Na França, a situação é crítica. No sudoeste do país, os bombeiros continuam lutando contra dois incêndios que já devastaram em torno de 11 mil hectares desde terça-feira (12) na região de Bordeaux, uma área equivalente à da cidade de Paris, disse à AFP o engenheiro Guillaume Rozier.

Segundo a agência meteorológica Météo-France, as temperaturas podem chegar a 40ºC nessa área. No domingo, 51 departamentos estavam sob alerta laranja, e 15, sob alerta vermelho, o mais alto, devido à escalada dos termômetros. "O calor está aumentando, a onda de calor está se espalhando pelo país", advertiu a agência.

As autoridades preveem que segunda-feira (18) será o dia mais quente no oeste do país, com temperaturas que podem ultrapassar os 40ºC nas regiões da Bretanha, Baixa Normandia, Aquitânia e Occitânia ocidental.

As temperaturas também continuam altas no Reino Unido, onde as autoridades decretaram a primeira emergência nacional por calor extremo. No sul da Inglaterra, as temperaturas podem passar dos 40°C pela primeira vez na segunda ou na terça-feira (19). ​Passageiros de trens foram aconselhados a viajar apenas se for absolutamente necessário e pode haver atrasos e cancelamentos generalizados.

Diante da onda de calor, Dominic Raab, adjunto do primeiro-ministro Boris Johnson, pediu que se respeite alguns "conselhos de senso comum". "Mantenha-se hidratado, evite sol nas horas mais quentes e passe protetor solar, esse tipo de coisa", disse ele à Sky News. Ao mesmo tempo, afirmou que é preciso "aproveitar o sol", que o país é resistente o suficiente para aguentar o calor e que não há razão para fechar as escolas.

As declarações foram criticadas por profissionais de saúde e meteorologistas. "Não é um dia bonito de sol, em que você pode passar protetor solar, ir nadar, ou comer fora", disse Tracy Nicholls, diretora-executiva do College of Paramedics. "Trata-se de um calor severo que pode, de fato, provocar mortes, porque é forte demais", acrescentou. "Não estamos preparados para esse tipo de calor neste país", insistiu.

Na Itália, onde incêndios menores ocorreram nos últimos dias, os meteorologistas esperam temperaturas acima de 40°C em várias regiões nos próximos dias.