Future of the Environment

UK flowers are blooming a month earlier because of climate change. Here's why that's a problem

A close up image of a pink wildflower

In 2019, UK flowers bloomed 40 days earlier than the average three decades earlier. Image: UNSPLASH/Adam Rhodes

Charlotte Edmond
Senior Writer, Forum Agenda
Share:
Our Impact
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Future of the Environment is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Future of the Environment

A chart showing first day of flowering by year.
The average first day of flowering has shifted by a month since the 1750s. Image: Ulf Büntgen/The Royal Society
Chart showing temperature dependency of first flowering dates.
As temperatures have climbed, flowering dates have shifted earlier. Image: Ulf Büntgen/The Royal Society
Chart showing European average temperatures from 1850-2019.
Europe’s average temperature in 2014 was 2.2℃ above the pre-industrial average – the biggest divergence to date. Image: Statista
Discover

What’s the World Economic Forum doing about climate change?

Have you read?
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:
Future of the EnvironmentClimate ChangeClimate Indicators
Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Reuse at an inflexion point: achieving a future free of plastic waste

Thom Almeida, Erin Simon and Tom Szaky

September 20, 2023

About Us

Events

Media

Partners & Members

  • Join Us

Language Editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

© 2023 World Economic Forum