Efforts to safeguard water supplies from the risk of more frequent droughts and other challenges will be discussed when water companies meet in London next week.

A joint initiative between the Green Alliance and the National Trust is progressing work on a proposed Natural Infrastructure Scheme (NIS) model - the pioneering new funding concept would deliver environmental restoration and improvement via the model for creating private markets for ecosystem services from land.

A new report is warning that climate risks to physical infrastructure combined with other threats mean that losses from climate-related hazards will continue to rise unless investors, lenders, insurers and policymakers undertake significant risk management efforts.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is warning that the UK homes are unfit for the challenges of climate change, including flooding and water scarcity and says the UK’s legally-binding climate change targets will not be met without the near-complete elimination of greenhouse gas emissions from UK buildings.

The Environment Agency’s new tidal flood defence barrier for Ipswich has been officially opened by Floods Minister, Dr Thérèse Coffey, ensuring more than 1,600 homes and 400 businesses are better protected from flooding and the impacts of climate change over the course of the next century.

A new study is warning that insect biodiversity of is threatened worldwide and that 40% of world's insect species could become extinct over next few decades.

Two-thirds (67%) of UK corporates will be disclosing climate-related risks and opportunities in their 2019 annual reporting, according to new figures released by the Carbon Trust.

During 2019 Met Office climate scientists expect to see one of the largest rises in atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentration in 62 years of measurements and warn that each year’s CO2 is higher than the last.

The Met Office global temperature forecast is forecasting that 2019 will be close to record warmth due to climate change and the added effect of El Niño-related warming in the Pacific. The Met Office global temperature forecast is forecasting that 2019 will be close to record warmth due to climate change and the added effect of El Niño-related warming in the Pacific.

Since 1850, 2016 is the warmest year on record with a central estimate of 1.15 °C above the same baseline. Now the Met Office says that the global average temperature for 2019 looks set to be between 0.98 °C and 1.22°C, with a central estimate of 1.10 °C, above the pre-industrial average period from 1850–1900.

Image: Graph showing global average temperature relative to the 1850–1900 baseline. The grey line and shading

shows the 95% uncertainty range. The forecast value for 2019 and its uncertainty range are shown in black and green.

Modest warming from El Niño combined with much larger effects due to rising levels of greenhouse gases are driving the 2019 temperature forecast.

Professor Adam Scaife, head of long-range prediction at the Met Office, said:

“Our forecasts suggest that by the end of 2019, 19 of the 20 warmest years on record will have occurred since the year 2000."

The forecast is based on the key drivers of the global climate, but it does not include unpredictable events, such as a large volcanic eruption, which would cause a temporary cooling.

The Met Office’s forecast for the 2018 global mean temperature, issued at the end of 2017 (0.88 °C to 1.12 °C with a central estimate of 1.00 °C), agrees closely with the latest observations of global temperature so far this year. Data from Jan-Oct 2018 shows the global mean temperature is 0.96±0.12 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Dr Doug Smith, Met Office research fellow, added:

“The forecast for 2019 would place next year amongst the five warmest years on record, which would all have occurred since 2015. All of these years have been around 1 °C warmer than the pre-industrial period”.

A new report from the World Economic Forum is warning that environmental degradation is the long-term risk that defines our age, with four of the top five most impactful global risks in 2019 related to climate change.