Climate change could flood London any time after 2030, warns expert

Rising sea levels and not rising temperatures are the main threat from climate change for people in the UK, according to an expert.

Professor Mark Maslin, director of the Environmental Institute at University College London, said that although adapting to warm wet winters and dry hot summers would not present too many difficulties to the UK population, coping with rising sea levels was another matter.

Predictions indicate that sea levels will rise by 80 cm by 2080. Any time after 2030, the Thames barrier could be breached and London flooded, he told an informal debate on climate change and water held last week at Chatham House, …