Britain warming faster than average

Britain's climate is warming faster than the global average quoted in the latest IPCC report, according to climate experts.

The seven warmest years in the past 100 have all occurred since 2000 in Britain.
The seven warmest years in the past 100 have all occurred since 2000 in Britain. Credit: Photo: ALAMY

Average annual temperatures in Britain have increased at a rate of about 0.18C per decade since 1950, compared with the 0.12C global surface temperature rise highlighted by the IPCC last month.

The speed of warming in the UK was highlighted in a policy note published on Friday by the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, and the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics.

The seven warmest years in the past 100 have all occurred since 2000 in Britain, and six of the ten wettest years on record have come in the past 15 years, the authors noted.

Previous studies have warned that global warming is happening faster in northern latitudes, and that land regions are heating faster than oceans.

The briefing document also claimed that global sea level, which is rising at a rate of 3.2mm per year on average, could be more severe along the south-east coast of England.

This part of the country is sinking at a rate of 1.5mm per year due to knock-on effects of the retreat of ice sheets following the last Ice Age, they explained.