THE world is heating up at the fastest rate for 10,000 years, and in the lifetime of today’s children British summers will be 6C warmer than now, according to scientific evidence of global warming presented by the Government yesterday.

“The world is warming. Natural effects, such as variation in the Sun’s output and volcanoes, are insufficient to account for the observed warming, which can only be explained by greenhouse gases from human activities,” the Energy White Paper said.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by a third since the Industrial Revolution and temperatures have risen by 0.6 per cent over the past century.

The effects of this warming are being observed. Ice caps are retreating from many mountain peaks. Arctic sea ice has thinned by 40 per cent in recent decades and global snow cover has decreased by more than 10 per cent. Melting ice and warmer waters pushed up sea levels by an average of 1mm (0.039in) a year during the 20th century, the Government said.

Extreme weather has become more common, with weather-related economic losses increasing tenfold over the past 40 years. The Thames Barrier was used once every two years in the 1980s, but has been used every two months, on average, over the past five years.

The White Paper said that further climate change was inevitable and that action had to be taken to adapt to it, such as improving flood prevention. It also said that if emissions were not curbed, temperatures would carry on rising rapidly, with summers in the South of England becoming 6C hotter in 2080 than now, and 3C hotter in the winter.

The White Paper gave warning that the consequences could be devastating. Up to 10 per cent of Bangladesh could end up under water. Coral reefs and mangrove swamps could be killed off and there could be more drought and more malaria.

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