UK will face greater food insecurity as climate crisis deepens, analysts say

The UK will face ever greater food insecurity as long as greenhouse gas emissions continue heating the Earth’s atmosphere, analysts have said. Around half the food consumed here is from abroad, and a quarter of those imports are from the Mediterranean.

Droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires have damaged harvests in southern Europe, as have intense rainstorms and flash flooding – all increasingly extreme features of climate change.

Spain alone accounts for 7% of UK imports, and it is the main source of some healthy staples such as oranges, lemons, grapes, sweet peppers, and olive oil. Last year, Spain experienced an extraordinarily hot summer bringing severe drought and the worst wildfire season in recent years.

Gareth Redmond-King, head of the international program at ECIU, said: “Even when we’re not experiencing extreme weather, we are not immune to its impacts in a globalized world. “Shortages of salad and other vegetables in UK supermarkets in February this year caused by extremes in southern Spain and north Africa brought home to people just how vulnerable the UK is to the impacts of climate change on our food.”