Friends of the Earth

Our Climate is changing-and it’s happening faster than we could ever have imagined.


The European heatwave in 2003 caused 26,000 premature deaths. Scientists predict that by 2040 this kind of heatwave will happen every two years.

Floods, hurricanes and droughts have increased threefold since the 1960s. The homes of over 4 million people in England and Wales are at risk from flooding.

The World health Organisation estimates that about 160,000 people die every year because of the effects of global warming.

Sea levels are forecast to rise by 88cm by 2100 sweeping away the homes and livelihoods of around 100 million people globally.

The warmer climate is killing wildlife and the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, threatening already endangered species like polar bears.

We have to stop it-and we can

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that these changes are mainly due to human activities. They are caused by factories, power stations, transport systems and homes pumping quantities of carbon dioxide and other climate change gases into the atmosphere. But the situation is not yet hopeless, because if people are causing the problem, then people can solve it.

We can make the government act

All the UK parties are committed to cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2050-but emissions have been rising. There is a danger that every government will put off necessary action until it is too late, unless they are legally obliged to take action now. That’s why we are campaigning for parliament to pass a climate change law requiring cuts of three per cent every year. The law would provide an impetus for new investment in clean energy such as solar and wind power; clean up inefficient, polluting technologies; and bring major gains in energy efficiency.