What will climate change cost the UK? Risks, impacts and mitigation for the net-zero transition

Many of the climate change impacts that the UK faces have the potential to create serious socioeconomic consequences. This report and accompanying policy brief provide improved estimates of the likely economic damages from climate change to the UK, highlighting where the greatest risks and need for adaptation are. These are translated into loss of socioeconomic welfare and reported as an equivalent loss of the UK’s GDP under two different policy scenarios – one in which current policies continue and another in which strong mitigation policies are put in place. This enables a comparison between the costs of climate change impacts and the cost of mitigation efforts until the end of this century.

The report estimates the total combined climate change risk for the UK based on an analysis of nine key ‘impact channels’, ranging from agriculture, livestock and fisheries to drought, flooding and coastal impacts.