The government is to launch an interactive web site to help businesses and individuals assess the likely impact of future climate change.
The site, which is expected to be launched late next year, will mark the culmination of a Defra's £2m UK 21st Century Climate Change Scenarios (UKCIP08) research project and will be based on five reports on the current climate and predicted changes.
The first of these reports, entitled The climate of the United Kingdom and recent trends, was released last week and found that central England temperatures had risen by about a degree Celsius since the 1970s.
Defra said that this data, as well as subsequent data from the Met Office, would be made available through the web site as a means of providing corporate decision makers with information on likely changes in climate. The site is expected to provide climate data as well as customisable climate projections and a weather generator tool for assessing climate change risks for specific regions.
The project was welcomed by environment minister Hilary Benn, who said it would make it easier for businesses and individuals to comprehend the direct impact of climate change and challenge them to start preparing adaptation measures now.
"All of us – governments, businesses and individuals – need to be able to plan for the future," Benn said. "This groundbreaking initiative, when completed in late 2008, will be designed to help people investigate the possible future climate at the click of a mouse."
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