The environmental crisis is getting increasingly harder to ignore. Year after year, winters are becoming chillier and summers more sweltering. And according to both scientists and campaigners, the clock is very much ticking.
Now in an ambitious study, climate data provider XDI Systems has ranked more than 2,600 regions around the world based on their vulnerability to damage by adverse weather and climate change. The analysis notes how much risk to the built environment of different places has grown since 1990 and how much it could continue to grow up to 2050.
Lincolnshire came first and Greater London second within the UK, with both places also making the top 10 percent of areas globally that are most at risk of property damage by extreme heat, forest fires, flooding and rising sea levels. They were closely followed by Wales, East Riding of Yorkshire and Somerset, in third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Although Inverness ranks 42 on the UK list, it stands out because its level of vulnerability is projected to almost triple by 2050 compared with the risk it faced back in 1990. This is the largest increase predicted across all of Europe and is likely down to Scotland’s exposure to rising sea levels.
Here are the ten UK regions most at risk from climate change, according to the XDI Systems study:
- Lincolnshire
- Greater London
- Wales
- East Riding of Yorkshire
- Somerset
- Cambridgeshire
- Norfolk
- Kent
- Essex
- Lancashire
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