Comment on new figures released by the ONS

Commenting on new figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning [1], analyst Amber Sawyer from the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said: “Food price inflation remains stubbornly high, and we know that climate change added an average of £180 a year to food bills in 2022 and 2023 [2]. Unless we hit net zero emissions, extreme weather and the threat to our food security will just get worse.

“Last year’s harvests in England were the second worst on record [3] following a torrential winter, with scientists saying that climate change made storm rainfall 20% heavier and 10 times more likely [4]. Jump forward a year, and farmers now face crops being lost [5] in the driest start to spring in over a century [6].

“Our food security is not just threatened here though, with staples like bananas being hit by extreme weather overseas [7]. Anyone buying Easter eggs this year will have felt the impact of flood and drought on cocoa crops in their pocket [8, 9].

ENDS

Notes to editors:

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/datasets/consumerpriceinflation

[2] https://eciu.net/analysis/reports/2023/climate-fossil-fuels-and-uk-food-prices-2023

[3] https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2024/confirmed-england-has-second-worst-harvest-on-record-with-fears-mounting-for-2025

[4] https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/autumn-and-winter-storms-over-uk-and-ireland-are-becoming-wetter-due-to-climate-change/

[5] https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2025/too-wet-then-too-dry-now-farmers-struggle-with-increasingly-unpredictable-weather

[6] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2025/how-close-are-we-to-breaking-spring-records

[7] https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2024/analysis-uk-funding-helps-farmers-growing-bananas-for-britain-weather-climate-change-storms

[8] https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2025/easter-chocolate-cocoa-price-up-a-third-as-extreme-weather-and-climate-change-bite

[9] https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2025/chocolate-prices-up-by-almost-half-in-just-three-years

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