Professor Hayley Fowler FRS, Professor of Climate Change Impacts at Newcastle University, has issued the warning as new polling reveals widespread public anxiety about the climate crisis, with more than one in three people in the UK feeling helpless about rising fossil fuel emissions and extreme weather. 

Professor Fowler was featured in BBC One’s Panorama on 9 November. She is among the scientists who warn that hotter summers and wetter winters will become more frequent with climate change, and discusses what needs to be done to adapt our towns and cities to the changing climate. 

She said: “Extreme weather is intensifying much faster than climate models predicted, and the UK will become almost unrecognisable within the next two decades. The extremes our climate can already produce are terrifying.  

“We will need to plan to relocate entire communities because of repeated severe flooding. Homes built on clay soils, as the majority of houses are in London are, will face increasing subsidence as droughts intensify. The British summer as we know it has already changed beyond recognition. Sporting events and outdoor music festivals are already being cancelled due to extreme heat. In the future there will likely be periods where holding these events outside is impossible, and people will have little choice but to stay indoors.  

“The super El Niño brewing in the Pacific is taking place on a much hotter planet. Next year’s weather will provide a glimpse into our increasingly extreme future, pushing global warming levels towards 1.8°C and bringing wetter, stormier weather to the UK this winter. We urgently need to cut fossil fuel emissions to stop the climate crisis getting worse, while making Britain more resilient to the extreme weather we can no longer avoid.”

Growing climate risks

The Opinium poll, commissioned ahead of COP31, also reveals strong public support for the UK Government to take a leading role in international efforts to cut fossil fuel emissions, alongside action to strengthen the country's resilience to extreme weather and food supply disruption. 

The poll reveals widespread anxiety about the climate crisis, with more than one in three (39%) people in the UK public feeling helpless about global emissions and impacts of extreme weather. The poll reveals that a majority (54%) of the UK public support the Government leading a new international coalition of countries committed to cutting fossil fuel emissions.  

Chris Packham CBE, broadcaster, naturalist and environmental campaigner, said: “People in the UK are frightened, and rightly so. We're facing a climate emergency of unimaginable proportions. The PM needs to deliver a televised emergency briefing, tell the public the truth and set out his plan to protect us.  

The need for a UK-wide briefing on the climate and nature risks will be debated by Parliament on 16th November, following a petition I led that was signed by 130,000 people. Following the Government's own utterly terrifying National Security report, released in January, there is simply no excuse for not agreeing to this. The UK public has a right to know what's coming. The Government has a duty to tell them. It's as simple as that.” 

The Opinium poll was commissioned by Climate Co Centre and the National Emergency Briefing and conducted among approximately 2,000 UK adults between 30 October and 3 November 2026. 

The findings also show that 54% of the UK public support a Government-led national public engagement strategy about its plans to address the risks of extreme weather and food and water insecurity driven by the climate crisis. Of those supporting a public engagement strategy, 66% want it to begin with a televised briefing by the Prime Minister alongside independent experts.  

The findings come ahead of a parliamentary debate on 16 November on a UK-wide briefing about climate and nature risks, following a petition led by Chris Packham and signed by more than 130,000 people. A similar call from the National Emergency Briefing, for the UK Government to give an emergency briefing on the climate and nature crisis - introduced by the Prime Minister and delivered live by independent experts, has been backed by 176 MPs so far. 

Press release adapted with thanks from New Society Communications.