BRITAIN’S coasts and oceans are being changed for ever by rising sea levels, bigger waves and stronger storms, a government report will warn this week.

The study, the most thorough yet carried out into the impact of climate change on the country’s marine environment, warns that sea levels could rise by as much as 2ft-3ft by 2080 and that the height of the biggest waves hitting our shores is already rising.

Such factors, combined with the likelihood of more and bigger storms, will, says the study, dramatically alter Britain’s shores, affecting the wildlife and people that live around them.

“This is a shocking report,” said Ben Bradshaw, the junior environment minister who oversees marine issues. “Climate change is impacting on our oceans far faster and more strongly than was ever expected.”

The study, Marine Climate Change Impacts, to be published this week by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, draws together the latest research from some of Britain’s leading marine and climate research centres.

The research comes as this autumn is poised to be the warmest since 1731, with average temperatures above 11.8C (53F).

The most obvious impact will be from rising sea levels. A report from the Hadley Centre, the Met Office’s climate research facility, warns that sea levels could rise by up to 2ft 6in around southern England by 2080.

Even Scotland, where rising sea levels are mitigated by the fact that the country is rising slightly from the earth’s crust, will experience an increase of up to 2ft, says the report.

Climate change causes sea levels to rise partly through melting ice sheets but also because, as water gets warmer, it expands slightly. A 1C temperature rise could raise global sea levels by many feet.

The report warns that such rises will be accompanied by an increase in the frequency and strength of big storms. As the atmosphere warms, more heat is generated to power weather systems.

“There has already been a greater incidence of severe winds,” says a report from the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton University. “Wave heights are increasing by about 2% a year around western and northern UK waters.”

For a maritime nation like Britain such changes would create serious problems, especially for the ports, oil rigs and coastal defences on which the nation depends.

The report also highlights the threat to sea life ranging from fish to seabirds and plankton — the microscopic plants and animals that form the basis of most marine ecosystems.

Cold-water species such as cod are already moving out of the North Sea. Corals, some plankton, shellfish and sea urchins will become less able to produce shells by the middle of this century because of increasing acidity, caused as rising levels of carbon dioxide dissolve in seawater.

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