New satellite data from the European Copernicus Climate Change Service shows the global average sea surface temperature in February was 21.06C, higher than the previous record of 20.98C set in August 2023. Maps released by the organisation show huge areas of the world’s ocean were much warmer than the long-term average. The Atlantic was particularly warm, including the […]
Action and investment are needed to reduce the risk of flood and drought and protect water supplies from the impacts of climate change across Scotland. A new plan published by Scottish Water outlines the efforts it will take to make services and infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather. Over the past decade, the public utility […]
Recycling, repair, re-use or reducing material consumption through circular business models can provide important additional reductions in greenhouse gas emissions helping to boost Europe’s climate change mitigation efforts, according to a new European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing. The new EEA briefing found that while European countries are already undertaking many initiatives on waste management and circular economy, […]
The European Commission has released a roadmap for its recommendation of a 90% net reduction in EU emissions by 2040. The goal of this is to set the path for climate neutrality by 2050. The Commission believes that setting a 2040 climate target will help European industry, investors, citizens and governments to make decisions in […]
Sea urchins exposed to diluted seawater for long periods show signs of physical deterioration, according to scientists from British Antarctic Survey, the University of Cambridge and the Scottish Association for Marine Science. Their study also found that even slight changes in salinity – or saltiness – trigger changes to urchin behaviour as they try to […]
The EU Copernicus Climate Change Service says January 2024 was the warmest January in the ERA5 data record, going back to 1940. The global surface air temperature was 13.14°C, which is 0.70°C above the 1991-2020 average for January and 0.12°C above the previous warmest January, in 2020. Taking into account the average of the last […]
Instruments deployed in the ocean starting in 2004 show that the Atlantic Ocean circulation has observably slowed over the past two decades, possibly to its weakest state in almost a millennium. Studies also suggest that the circulation has reached a dangerous tipping point in the past that sent it into a precipitous, unstoppable decline, and that it could hit that tipping point again as […]
A blog by Alex Plant, Scottish Water Chief Executive Officer The amount customers pay to keep Scotland’s water cycle flowing is increasing. It’s going up because the climate we rely on for the water needs of our nation is affecting every aspect of our services, and we must do more to maintain and replace our […]