Impacts of Climate Change
Health
The Climate Change Committee has outlined these potential impacts that are caused by extended exposure to high temperatures:
Heat Stress
This happens when the body’s way of controlling its internal temperature starts to fail. This can result in a rising core body temperature and an increasing heart rate, which can lead to heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
Unintentional Injury and Accidents
There is evidence that high temperatures increase the risk of injury, particularly for children
Adverse Maternal Health
High temperatures can adversely affect the health of pregnant women, particularly increasing the risk of preterm birth.
Adverse Mental Health
High temperatures can worsen mental health symptoms, with there being evidence of a relationship between higher temperatures and increased suicides.
Environment
According to the Climate Change Committee, "evidence of long-term shifts in the distribution and abundance of some terrestrial, freshwater and marine species due to higher temperatures is now discernible, despite complex interactions. These shifts can be expected to continue and become more widespread, with some species potentially benefiting, but others losing suitable climate space."
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In addition, the natural resilience of species and their ecosystems has been weakened by “historic and ongoing pressures” from climate change, including “pollution, habitat loss and fragmentation, the continuing drainage of wetlands and the unsustainable use of soil, water and marine resources.”
Economy
According to the 2022 report by the Grantham Institute, it was discovered that "under current policies, the total cost of climate change damages to the UK is projected to increase from 1.1% of GDP at present to 3.3% by 2050 and at least 7.4% by 2100."
This would result in:
Increased Costs of Food
The impact of climate change on global food systems is likely to result in greater volatility in domestic food prices. Climate change could lead to a 20% (mean) rise in food prices globally by 2050.
Infrastructure Damage
Coastal infrastructure, such as ports, is at risk from rising sea levels and “infrastructure networks near rivers will be exposed to higher flows and erosion of bridge foundations”. Separately, high temperatures increase the “risk of railway track buckling, electricity cables sagging, and road tarmac softening and rutting”. Extreme weather events can thus risk severe damage to essential services— such as water and energy supplies, transportation and communication networks—which is both costly to recover and can have a significant negative impact on local economic activity. Lastly, a Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology briefing notes that “infrastructure interdependencies mean that failure can spread rapidly between sectors”.
Heat-related Labour Productivity Loss
As temperatures increase, workers feel decreased energy, loss of concentration, muscle cramps, heat rash, and in extreme cases heat exhaustion or heatstroke. A study focusing on the US found that “productivity of individual days declines roughly 1.7% for each 1C (1.8F) increase in daily average temperature above 15C (59F)”. In China, national economic costs of heat-related labour productivity loss have been estimated at 1.36% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, up from 1.03% of GDP in 2011. UK-specific evidence on heat-related productivity loss is limited; however, research suggests that the costs for London could amount to 0.4% of economic output in a warm year in a 2C warming trajectory scenario.
Food Security
As a result of climate change, some natural and human systems have been pushed beyond their ability to adapt. “Global warming has slowed the growth of agricultural productivity over the past 50 years in mid and low latitudes”, with crop yields and harvest stability negatively affected by higher temperatures and a higher concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
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Evidence of negative climate impacts are already beginning to emerge in the UK. In its 2021 food security report, the government attributed a 40% drop in wheat yields in 2020 to heavy rainfall and droughts, suggesting this was an “indicator of the effect that increasingly unreliable weather patterns may have on future production”.