Experts: UK is losing race to adapt to climate change

A panel of experts says Britain is losing the race to adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change, including worsening heat and floods

LONDON -- Britain is losing the race to adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change, including worsening heat and floods, a government-appointed panel of experts said Wednesday. The Climate Change Committee, set up to advise the U.K. government, said the level of global warming that is already inevitable would cause power cuts, expensive and dangerous overheating in homes, and damage to nature, crops and food supplies. It said the government must act urgently to ensure that Britain is prepared. In a 140-page report — released, by chance, on what is forecast to be the hottest day of the year in the U.K. — the committee said in recent years “the gap between the level of risk we face and the level of adaptation underway has widened.” It said the government’s pledge to cut planet-warming carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 — by embracing renewable energy, reducing pollution, planting trees and other measures — would not address the effects of climate change that are already underway.