PHYSICAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Although the energy community has been concerned primarily about the possible effects of climate change policy on the energy sector, climate change will also have physical effects in the longer term. One of the most obvious changes in the UK will be a reduced need for space heating fuels, though the use of electricity for air conditioning will rise. Energy supply will also be affected, though in less important ways, through secondary climate variables such as precipitation, storminess and cloudiness. Climatologists can, as yet, say little about how these parameters might change.