UK is getting warmer, experts say

Last year was the UK’s warmest year on record, the Met Office has confirmed.

London’s temperatures exceeded 40C in July 2022, and fire crews fought a number of blazes across the capital.

London generally experiences hotter and drier summers than other areas of the UK because the sun’s rays are absorbed by hard surfaces rather than by vegetation such as trees, plants and grass. Radiation from the hard surfaces is released into the air as heat, and our ‘urban island’ effect reduces the city’s ability to regulate temperature.

With warming trends expected to continue, CPRE London is committed to protecting and enhancing the city’s green spaces. Despite evidence that harnessing nature helps protect against heat and floods caused by climate change, as well as sustaining wildlife, we are fighting to reverse loss of green space each year.

Our climate is changing. All four nations in the UK had record high temperatures in 2022, with England seeing the highest.

CPRE London is calling on all Londoners to take action. Could you cut your car use or even go car free? Could you source more of your food from local sources rather than choosing things that need to be flown across the world? Could you get planting and turn a wasted grey space green?