The consequences of the climate crisis could impact significantly on the UK, but the British Red Cross is working with communities across the country to build resilience to weather-related emergencies and develop strategies to adapt for the future
With the hottest summer on record in the UK last year and heatwaves sweeping Europe and the UK again in recent months, the effects of global heating on our planet are becoming impossible to ignore. The more frequent and intense extreme weather driven by the climate crisis is already having an impact on the UK – and dealing with the fallout from this is something the British Red Cross is making a top priority.
“We are increasingly responding to emergencies that are weather and climate related,” says Dr Ellie Murtagh, UK climate adaptation lead at the British Red Cross. For example, during last summer’s heatwave, the British Red Cross was on the ground responding to multiple different extreme weather events. This meant supporting people in London who lost their homes due to fires caused by barbecues on dry grass and those in a Yorkshire village who were left without water when a large water pipe burst.
