Our changing climate

Climate change is projected to bring us hotter drier summers, warmer wetter winters, heavier rainfall and rising sea levels.

The UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) is an agency set up by government to help the UK adapt. Together with the Met Office, UKCIP provides projections of what our climate is likely to be like for the rest of this century. These projections are known as ‘scenarios’. The current generation were launched in 2002 and are known as UKCIP02. UKCIP are expected to launch the next generation of projections in early 2009.

Understanding uncertainty in projections of future climate is key to assessing likely impacts and required adaptation options. UKCIP02 estimated this uncertainty by presenting four possible scenarios of future climate change each associated with a different emission's future. The new UKCIP climate change projections will provide greater clarity on the nature of uncertainty by presenting future climate change in terms of probabilistic distributions as well as for different emission's futures. Although they incorporate a much deeper exploration of the associated uncertainty, that included in the new UKCIP climate change scenarios is reflective of the methodology and assumptions employed. Further uncertainties, including those associated with rapid or even sudden changes in climate are possible.

The climate and adaptation information available from UKCIP covers all of the UK, including for each region. This website provides a brief summary of projections and likely impacts for both the UK and for London.

For further information, please visit the UKCIP website.