Climate change 'will affect us all'

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The South East of England could see increases in summer temperatures of between 2C and 6C by the 2080s, according to the latest research published.

Summer rainfall is likely to decrease by more than a fifth (22%) in the South East and Yorkshire and Humber, while winter rain could increase by 16% in the North West.

More rain is likely to fall on the wettest days, leading to a higher risk of flooding, the climate projections study led by scientists from the Met Office Hadley Centre revealed.

London's sea levels could rise by 36cm (14 inches), while the capital could also be hit by heatwaves in which summer temperatures would regularly top 40C (104F), the study shows.

The UK Climate Projections 09 study looks at what is likely to happen to the country up to the end of the century, under three different levels of global greenhouse gas emissions - high, medium and low - that humans may put into the atmosphere in the future.

The medium emissions scenario, which the world is currently closest to, would lead to various parts of the UK facing temperature rises of between 2C and 6C, and summer rainfall reductions of 22% or winter rainfall increases of 16%, while London could witness sea level rises of 36cm.

Temperatures could be even higher under the high emissions scenario, leading to the potential for the capital to regularly face summer heatwaves of more than 40C.

Mr Benn said the world must avoid a high emissions future, but warned that even if leaders managed to agree a new global deal on cutting greenhouse gases in Copenhagen in December, people would still have to live with "some level of change".

Because emissions stay in the system for many years, the next three decades of climate change are already set, he said. As a result, all major investment from the Government would have to take climate change into account, while organisations such as Network Rail, National Grid and the Environment Agency should be obliged to tell the public what they were doing to plan for the changes.