Experts expect Britain to struggle with the climate change's collateral damage in the upcoming decades. They suggest that the country should attempt to avoid a “catastrophic” environmental fallout or else the British produce will be highly affected. 

The United Kingdom’s Royal Meteorological Society has published at the end of July the state of the U.K. Climate 2020 report where authors noted that last year was England’s third-warmest year since the records started in 1884. 

On the other hand, the United Kingdom Met Office expects the country to see warmer and wetter winters, and even hotter and drier summers with “more frequent and intense weather extremes” because of climate change.

Michael Christie, professor of environmental and ecological economics at Aberystwyth Business School in Wales, said in an interview with CNBC that unless the U.K. and other countries act on it, temperature rises would have “more and more catastrophic effects.”

“And those effects will be irreversible,” he added, noting that certain industries were at greater risk.

“For agriculture, for example, there will be risks in terms of the potential impact on what crops can grow,” he said. “There are also issues in terms of livestock and methane emissions, so farmers might not be able to have [as much] livestock in the future. But there are maybe some benefits in those warmer temperatures in the U.K. might actually lead to increased yields.”

Impact on agriculture

The climate change effect doesn’t only affect the weather in the country. In fact, agriculture is one of the largest damaged industries. In 2020, 71% of land in the United Kingdom was used for farming and agriculture has made up 0.5% of the country’s gross domestic production. The industry represents 1.4% of all British jobs.

Martin Lukac, professor of ecosystem science at the University of Reading said that some British farmers were already feeling the impact of more frequent extreme weather events, specifically flooding and dry spells.