Responding to a major new report on the effect of climate change on oceans published today, Green Party Member of the European Parliament for the East of England, Catherine Rowett has called for immediate action in response to the threat of flooding around the coasts of East Anglia and in the fens, from rising sea levels, and the potential collapse of marine life.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report details how seas are becoming warmer, higher and more acidic as a result of climate change, putting pressure on an already overfished and fragile ecosystem. The world’s glaciers, poles and oceans will irremediably continue to break down over the coming decades and centuries, due to the heating that humans have already caused. This in turn will lead to further warming, as heat will no longer be reflected by ice and less CO2 will be absorbed by the oceans.
East Anglia is especially vulnerable to these changes: scientists’ modelling predicts that most of the Fens as well as large parts of Norfolk will be below sea level with a 2ºC global temperature rise. Scientists say that on the current trajectory, we will see temperature rises of well over 2ºC.
Communities in Suffolk that depend on fishing will also face threats due to the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems. North Sea cod has today lost its status as a sustainable fish as populations are too low, mainly due to overfishing. Such fish would be further hit by climate change.
Responding to the report, Catherine Rowett MEP said:
“This report shows that we have to start preparing for the disastrous effects of climate change for East Anglia right now. Within a few decades, whole swathes of Norfolk and the Fens could be flooded, and people who rely on the seas for their livelihoods could see that destroyed. Many people in East Anglia could become climate refugees, as will millions in coastal regions around the world.
“Scientists have been warning about the threat posed by climate change for decades. Now it is almost too late, as the heating of our earth is entering exponential feedback loops and will continue without human intervention. But there is still time, if we act now.
“We need a total change to our system so that we cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2030 if we are to avert catastrophe. I hope that this latest report by scientists along with the growing activist movement for climate action will wake our leaders up before they take us all down with them.”