The government must prepare for 2°C warming by 2050

The UK should be prepared to face extreme weather from global warming of at least 2C by 2050, independent climate advisers have said.

The country is “not yet adapted” to the worsening extreme weather conditions already occurring at current levels of warming, “let alone” what was expected, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) wrote in a letter to the government.

The committee said it would advise the UK to prepare for climate change beyond the long-term temperature target set out in the Paris Agreement.

The letter comes as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirms that 2024 saw a record increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.

CO2 is the gas primarily responsible for human-caused climate change and is released during the burning of fossil fuels, as well as other activities.

The CCC’s letter came after it was asked to provide advice on a timetable for establishing adaptation scenarios, based on “minimum climate scenarios”.

They urged the government to establish a framework of “clear long-term targets” to prevent further rises in temperatures, with new targets every five years and departments “clearly responsible” for meeting those targets.

The CCC said it would be able to provide more detail on potential “trade-offs” in May 2026, when it publishes a major report outlining how the UK can adapt to climate change.

The Paris Agreement was signed in 2015 and saw almost 200 countries commit to trying to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and staying “well below” 2°C.

As the CCC outlined in its letter, a level of global warming of 2°C would have a significant impact on the UK’s weather, with extreme events becoming more frequent and widespread.

They said the UK could expect increased heatwaves, droughts and floods, and the wildfire season was likely to extend into the autumn.

Baroness Brown, chair of the CCC Adaptation Committee, said: “People across the UK are already experiencing the impacts of climate change, and we owe it to them to prepare, and also to help them prepare.

“Adaptation in the UK is not keeping pace with increasing climate risk. The impacts on the UK are worsening and [the government] needs more ambition,” she told the BBC’s Today programme.

The president also criticized Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who pledged to scrap Britain’s landmark climate change legislation and replace it with a strategy for “cheap and reliable” energy.

Baroness Brown called the promise “disappointing” and said she hoped the Conservative leader would “reflect on the fact that the law covers both adaptation and mitigation”.

The UK is already facing climate change due to climate change, with four official heatwaves confirmed in 2025 in what the Met Office has called the hottest summer on record.

Met Office climatologists have found that a summer as hot as, or even hotter than, 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would have been in a ‘natural’ climate, without human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

The increase in atmospheric CO2 between 2023 and 2024 is the largest since modern measurements began in the late 1950s, the WMO said.

This follows findings first reported by the Met Office in January.

“Heat trapped by CO2 and other greenhouse gases is fueling our climate and leading to even more extreme weather,” said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett.

“Reducing emissions is therefore essential not only for our climate but also for our economic security and the well-being of our communities,” she added.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has previously said CO2 levels are at their highest in at least two million years, based on longer-term records such as marine sediments and ice cores.