Provisional Met Office statistics confirm that summer 2025 is officially the warmest summer on record for the UK. Analysis by Met Office climate scientists has also shown that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would be in a ‘natural’ climate with no human caused greenhouse gas emissions.
The South West Peatland Partnership is gearing up to start its 2025/26 peatland restoration season on Dartmoor, continuing work to restore and protect the peat of the globally significant landscape.
Climate change made weather conditions leading to deadly wildfires in Türkiye, Cyprus and Greece 10 times more likely, acording to researchers at the Weather Attribution Service and other leading climate scientists.
As climate change is exacerbates heat stress around the world, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) have created Thermal Trace, a fast and intuitive application to explore maps, charts and decades of data to monitor heat and cold stress globally and how this is changing over time.
One of Scotland’s most easterly points has successfully been kept in water supply after a period of low rainfall affecting water reserves on the islet. Skerries, an archipelago of three islands, is the most easterly outpost that is part of Shetland, making it one of the most remote places in Scotland.
The National Drought Group met yesterday to discuss measures to address the ongoing water shortfall as England enters its fourth heatwave of the summer, with temperatures set to reach 34C in some areas. Commenting on the situation, Helen Wakeham, chair of the Group and Director of Water at the Environment Agency (EA) said:
"The current situation is nationally significant and we are calling on everyone to play their part and help reduce the pressure on our water environment.”
Uisce Éireann has announced that its Water Services Strategic Plan 2050 (WSSP 2050) has been approved by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage James Browne TD and subsequently adopted by the Uisce Éireann Board.
UK councils suffer on average 43 flooding incidents a year, with nationwide recovery costs of up to £566 million, according to findings from Infrastructure Policy Advancement (IPA), the policy think-tank at Bentley Systems Inc. More than half of councils (57%) also reported that their sewer systems had been overwhelmed in the last decade.
Ofwat has published a consultation paper setting out the regulator’s latest thinking on climate change and six proposed principles which aim to provide a clear, flexible framework to guide water companies’ responses to climate change.
Following Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s claim that Britain’s way of life is “under threat” from climate change, local planning authorities (LPAs) are being urged to mandate rainwater harvesting across all new infrastructure projects, from residential developments to high-rise commercial buildings.