Climate change impacts floods in Spain, Portugal and Morocco: comment

"Recent warnings from food experts and the government’s own national security advisers make clear climate change poses a serious and growing threat to UK food security. [2] Cutting emissions to net zero remains the only scientific solution to avert worsening impacts like the deadly downpours we’ve just seen in Spain, Morocco and Portugal. 

"Two fifths of our food comes from overseas, and last year, we imported £5.4 billion worth of food from these three countries. The top 30 food imports included over half a billion pounds’ worth of tomatoes, sweet peppers and cucumbers, and nearly half a billion pounds’ worth of strawberries, raspberries and other berries. Along with over £150 million of cauliflowers and broccoli, these are items we can’t grow here at this time of year, and so we rely on these to avoid shortages. 
 

"As well as threatening lives and livelihoods, climate impacts overseas, combined with the UK’s second worst harvest ever last year, hit quality of food and leave buyers competing for smaller volumes - which drives up food prices and even leaves supermarket shelves empty. If we don’t get to net zero as soon as possible, this will only continue to get worse into the future."