IT’S TIME TO ACT
IT’S TIME TO SAVE OUR PLANET
Temperatures:
By 2050 the summer average temperatures in Wales are projected to increase by 1.34C.
The weather in 2019 was already a tale of extremes, with a number of records broken across Wales and the UK.
Wales broke a national record for warmest winter and February days with 20.8°C (69.4F) recorded in Porthmadog on February 26.
Another record broken was the hottest Easter Monday on record in Wales.
Rainfall:
By 2050 rainfall in Wales is projected to increase in winter on average by 5% and decrease in summer months by 16%, according to Welsh Government figures based on a mediumhigh-emissions scenario.
Wales already sees heavy levels of rain during the winter, with the highest recorded in December 2015 at 334.7mm. And with less rainfall during the summer months grass fires could become more common.
In April 2019 large parts of south Wales were left scorched after fire ripped through acres of land. One wildfire expert warned that changing weather patterns are helping fuel “tinder box” conditions across Wales. Professor Stefan Doerr said parts of the Brecon Beacons resembled the African savannah over Easter in 2019.
Energy usage:
By 2050, most, if not all, of Wales’ energy should be from renewable sources.
Policy experts at the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) said Wales could meet all of its energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2035. They said that would include more solar power, offshore wind farms, tidal power and some hydropower all contributing to the grid in Wales.
It would also bring in £7.4bn in total Welsh gross value added, the measure of the value of goods and services produced in a sector, according to the IWA.
Bridgend is already leading the way with renewable energy projects as one of just three places in the UK to test pioneering schemes.
The Caerau mine-water project is an underground heat network in Bridgend town for homes, schools, hospitals and businesses.
Construction work on the Caerau mine-water project near Maesteg is due to begin in 2020 with the first homes being connected to the system in winter 2021.
Where we live:
The homes that we live in are a massive contributor to the emissions produced in Wales.
A report in July 2019 by the Decarbonisation of Homes in Wales Advisory Group said that our 1.4 million homes are responsible for 27% of all energy consumed in the country.
The report to Welsh ministers said Wales has some of the oldest and least thermally efficient housing stock in the UK and Europe. To tackle the issues they recommend a 30-year programme of “decarbonisation” of Welsh homes until 2050.
Homes will have to follow new standards to be low carbon, water and energy efficient and “climate resilient”.
And gas could be a thing of the past. The Welsh Government report quoted the Committee on Climate Change, which said that from 2025 at the latest “no new homes should be connected to the gas grid”.
The Welsh Government report added that by 2050 all housing stock must be retrofitted to have a band A energy rating.
Population:
In October 2019 the Office for National Statistics published data on how the population of Wales could change in the coming decades.
They said the population of Wales is set to peak at 3.16 million in 2023, more than two decades earlier than previously thought.
Cian Sion, at the Wales Governance Centre, said at the time: “If these projections are borne out, Wales is on the verge of its first period of sustained population decline in nearly a century. The last time was during the 1920s.”
The population is then set to decrease by 0.9% to 3.11 million by 2043, the furthest ahead figures go.
Sea levels:
By 2050, sea levels are predicted to rise across the country. In Cardiff they could rise by 24cm, 19cm in Llandudno and 22cm in Aberystwyth.
Even based on a medium emissions scenario, sea levels round Wales are predicted to rise by around 22cm by 2050, leading to a greater number being at risk of flooding.