More extreme weather and flooding is on the way as the UK is already seeing “reasonable worst case scenarios” play out, according to a leading climate politician, who warned the climate crisis will kill more people than most wars have.
Calling for the Government to put the same effort into tackling the climate emergency as it has for Covid-19, Sir James Bevan, chief executive of the Environment Agency, said predictions for the effects of global heating on the UK should not be mistaken for “science fiction”.
High sea levels will “take out most of the world’s cities,” he said, displacing millions of people and rendering large areas of land uninhabitable.
Drought, flooding, wildfires and heatwaves will cause higher death tallies than war, he added, and will trigger ecosystem collapse.
Speaking at the Association of British Insurers annual conference, Bevan warned the climate crisis will ultimately “destroy the basis of the modern economy and modern society”.
The warnings came as the Met office issued a “danger to life” torrential rain warning for swathes of the UK, with strong winds and up to four inches of rain expected in some areas over the next two days.