This month we’ve been working in partnership with Reading Borough Council to raise awareness of climate change to help people understand what can be done about the climate crisis, both by reducing their contribution to the causes and preparing for its impacts. 

We’ve been sharing information on how the UK is affected by climate change and provide advice to support local communities be more resilient to our changing climate. 

#GetClimateReady 

By making changes in our lives, we can all play a part in protecting our planet from the worst impacts of climate change and adapting our lives to protect ourselves from the impacts we will see. 

Our thoughts are with those who are currently affected with the impacts caused by Storm Bert in South Wales, as well as the rest of the country. 

Storm Bert was a ‘multi-hazard event’, bringing snow, rain and wind to much of the UK over the weekend. This deep low-pressure system resulted in impacts across large swathes of the country including wind damage, flooding, and snowfall. 

Here we look back at a case study from catastrophic floods that devastated parts of Rhondda Cynon Taf in 2020. Adapted from a British Red Cross case study, the case study comes from a collection of research that illustrates the impact of flooding and value of adaptation.

To address the effects of climate change, particularly the rise in extreme heat and intense rainfall events, local authorities are assessing their resilience and determining necessary adaptations to manage the weather conditions we are experiencing. 

The Met Office recently launched the Local Authority Climate Service (LACS) provides local authorities with easy access to tailored information on climate change, to support local climate change adaptation planning. 

The Met Office worked with Esri UK to build the new operational service to help local authorities visualise climate challenges, explore climate projections and communicate a climate story specific to their local areas.   

The LACS is a commitment made by Defra in The Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) and the Fourth Strategy for Climate Adaptation Reporting.  

It connects climate science to local action and provides Local Authorities with crucial information on climate change and potential impacts on a local level. It's open access and free.  

TerraFIRMA (Feedbacks and Impacts in the Real-world Mitigation Actions) is a cutting-edge research project advancing climate change mitigation options. 

Find out more about how TerraFIRMA is working the forefront of climate change mitigation science to support scientists, policymakers, and industry leaders seeking effective strategies to mitigate the risks and impacts from climate change.

By reducing emissions, we can limit global warming and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. In a blog published last year, we take a look at how national emissions are monitored for international reporting and the relevance of this information for policymakers.  

You can also find out more about greenhouse gases emitted by human activity and why they are a key indicator of our changing climate in our video

The negotiations at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan came to a close on Sunday night (24 November) concluding two weeks of climate talks and days of negotiations over the final outcome document. Key parts of the agreement included: 

• Climate finance commitments - The central focus of COP29 was climate finance, with developed countries agreeing to triple finance to developing countries to $100 billion a year by 2035. Developing countries were calling for closer to $1.3 trillion a year in climate finance and feel the agreed figures are insufficient for tackling climate impacts.  

• Lack of agreement on next steps - Countries failed to reach an agreement on how the outcomes of last year’s ‘global stocktake’, including a key pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, should be taken forward – instead postponing the decision to COP30 next year in Brazil. 

• Agreement on carbon markets - Countries have agreed on the final building blocks that set out how carbon markets will operate under the Paris Agreement, making country-to-country trading and a carbon crediting mechanism fully operational. This means all elements of the Paris Agreement have been finalised nearly 10 years after it was signed.  

“We’re in the midst of an AI revolution and it’s happening at just the right time”, according to Professor Kirstine Dale, Chief AI Officer at the Met Office. “There are some major environmental challenges facing us and we’re increasingly aware of our vulnerability to extremes in the weather.” 

On Tuesday 12 November, alongside our partners the Alan Turing Institute, we hosted the AI for High-Precision Weather Forecasting Showcase in Westminster.  

The event demonstrated the crucial role AI technology is playing in addressing environmental challenges and improving our understanding of weather systems and the changing climate.  

At the event, we showcased FastNet - a potentially groundbreaking Machine Learning model for weather prediction. Developed over the past year as part of the ground-breaking partnership between the Met Office and The Alan Turing Institute, the work demonstrates the next step in weather prediction and the UK’s commitment to remain at the cutting-edge of weather forecasting.    

In a recent blog post, the Met Office and the Alan Turing Institute provide an update on developments around AI's future role in weather forecasting and understanding climate change. 

On 14 November, at COP29, UK Government Minister for Development, Anneliese Dodds, announced an additional £30+ million investment from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to support the Met Office-led Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER) Africa programme. This funding extends the impact of WISER, a flagship initiative designed to improve access to co-produced weather and climate information to enhance early warning systems for communities across Africa.

On Monday the Met Office will publish its statistics for UK weather for November and the autumn. Keep an eye on our social media channels for their release. 

Every December the Met Office publishes its global temperature outlook for the year ahead. Keep an eye on our news releases and social media channels next month.