Climate Change and UK Wildfire
Wildfire is any uncontrolled vegetation fire that requires a decision, or action, to suppress it. This POSTnote summarises management of wildfires in the UK, how projected climate changes may affect UK wildfire behaviour, and the environmental, economic, and health impacts of this. It also outlines policy options for increasing the UK’s resilience to wildfires.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58248/PN603
Fire is natural and essential process in some global ecosystems. Fire regimes are defined by their intensity (energy output from the fire), severity (organic matter consumption), frequency, seasonality, and size of wildfires in an area. These regimes change through time according to atmospheric conditions, climate, and vegetation. Weather is a key factor in determining whether wildfire risk is elevated or not. Between 2009 and 2017, the Forestry Commission classified 285,867 events that the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) attended in the UK as wildfires. Satellites recorded an area burnt of over 180km2 in 2018, and already over 290km2 so far in 2019. Significant wildfires do occur in the UK and even small wildfires can have major impacts since location is key. UK climate projections indicate more climatic factors conducive to wildfire (heat, lack of moisture and wind) but there is a lack of recorded evidence on the environmental, economic and health impacts of wildfire events.
Key points in this POSTnote include:
- Wildfire is a natural and essential part of some ecosystems.
- Recently, there has been a global surge of large wildfires and prolonged fire seasons, associated with a complex mix of climate change, changing land management practices and human behaviour.
- UK climate projections indicate that climatic factors conducive to elevated wildfire conditions will increase.
- The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment and National Adaptation Programme identified wildfire as a climate change risk.
- The Home Office has responsibility for wildfire risk and focuses on extinguishing fires with other management responsibilities split between government departments.
Acknowledgements
POSTnotes are based on literature reviews and interviews with a range of stakeholders and are externally peer reviewed. POST would like to thank interviewees and peer reviewers for kindly giving up their time during the preparation of this briefing, including:
Professor Joseph Holden, University of Leeds*
Professor David Bowman, University of Tasmania*
Dr Pat Thompson, RSPB*
Dr Gareth Clay, University of Manchester*
Professor Andrew Scott, Royal Holloway, University of London*
Rob Gazzard, Forestry Commission England*
Julia McMorrow, University of Manchester*
Alistair Crowle, Natural England*
Sam Ashby, Home Office*
Professor Andy Moffat, Forest Research*
Dr Rory Hadden, University of Edinburgh
Professor Camille S. Stevens-Rumann, University of Idaho
Professor Guillermo Rein, Imperial College London
Dr Thomas Smith, London School of Economics and Political Science
Dr Cathelijne Stoof, Wageningen University
Professor Claire Belcher, University of Exeter
Dr Nicholas Walding, University of Exeter
Marc Castellnou, Pau Costa Foundation
Professor Matt Davies, Ohio State University
Lucian Deaton, National Fire Protection Association
Michelle Steinberg, National Fire Protection Association
Dr Will Morton, Public Health England
David Middleton, Defra
Professor Richard Betts, MET Office
Ian Lisk, Met Office*
Chris Pope, Natural England*
Julian Hilditch, Home Office*
Bob Speel, Home Office*
Steve Bray, Ministry of Defence
*Denotes people who acted as external reviewers of the briefing