|
On 12 December, two new co-directors were announced for the UK National Climate Science Partnership (UKNCSP). Professor Michael Meredith, an oceanographer from the British Antarctic Survey and Professor Cath Senior, a leading climate scientist at the Met Office, have recently joined the partnership and will lead the next phase of the initiative. Recognising the urgency of climate action, in the context of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP28, the partnership is playing an important role in embedding scientific advice in the government’s climate mitigation and adaptation plans.
 The Met Office outlook for global temperature suggests 2024 will be a further record-breaking year, expected to exceed 2023, which is itself almost certain to be the warmest year on record. The announcement was made on 8 December and Dr Nick Dunstone, who led the forecast, said: “The forecast is in-line with the ongoing global warming trend of 0.2 °C per decade, and is boosted by a significant El Niño event. Hence, we expect two new global temperature record-breaking years in succession, and, for the first time, we are forecasting a reasonable chance of a year temporarily exceeding 1.5 °C.”
Climate scientist Professor Ed Hawkins MBE from the University of Reading told the BBC last week that sports have a responsibility to change fan habits and help fight climate change. Ed said, "Weather will be more severe and affect everyone's ability to watch sport, whether it will be events becoming too hot, or with flooding in the UK, where we're having fixtures getting called off, and we're seeing an increase in heavy rainfall.
"It's affecting sports already, and those effects will continue to get worse."
 On 6 December, the UK’s Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, announced a £70 million pilot scheme to cover a portion of the costs of upgrading the electricity grid at motorway service areas, ensuring that the private sector can continue to expand the charging network and providing consumers more confidence to choose EVs.
|
