Last month, governments from across the world gathered in Dubai, with the goal of saving the world from the catastrophic breakdown of our climate. 

Preventing the worst of climate change means stopping the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas, but negotiators at COP28 failed to agree to do that, and the world’s attention quickly moved on to Christmas and other things. 

But what did or didn’t happen in Dubai doesn’t stay in Dubai, and for residents of Norfolk and the east of England the impacts of that failure will be very serious indeed.

In much of our region, climate change isn’t just an abstract concept that will affect polar bears and our grandkids. It is happening already, and it will continue to get worse and worse. 

The seas have been rising since the last ice age but it is now happening much faster thanks to burning fossil fuels. 

Long stretches of our coast are already vulnerable to flooding, with towns like Wells, Blakeney and Great Yarmouth partially under water at the highest tides. 

But when high tides coincide with storm surges, the flooding can be catastrophic. Deadly floods like that of 1953, which killed more than 500 people in the UK, have always been part of our history, but climate change means storm surges are now twice as frequent , and will become more severe. Other parts of our coast suffer erosion. 

In fact parts of Norfolk are disappearing faster than anywhere in Europe, and people’s properties are already falling into the sea in Happisburgh and Hemsby.

This can’t be stopped, but it will get worse and worse so long as we’re burning fossil fuels and supercharging the atmosphere and oceans with the heat energy that helps drive winter storms.

Away from the coasts, in the Fens and the Broads, vast swathes of prime agricultural land and countless villages are already at or below the level of the highest tides, as I saw first-hand when I walked 180 miles between them last October. 

They’re kept safe and dry only by complex and expensive systems of defences and drainage, but defending them will be harder and more expensive as the seas rise.

Parts of the Broads have been experiencing extensive flooding this winter following heavy rainfall, but higher tides compound the risk. What will happen when there’s heavy rainfall and a very high tide or storm surge at the same time? 

Already, at Heacham, the costs of coastal defences have ballooned so much that the council and Environment Agency are now reconsidering whether they can afford them. For now they have a ‘hold the frontline’ policy, but they could decide to let the sea in… possibly as soon as next year. 

Climate change is not a future risk in Norfolk, it’s happening now – and not just at the coasts. The 40°C heatwave in 2022 caused 300 wildfires in Norfolk. 

Every month seems to bring unseasonal weather and bad news for the region’s farmers, and we’ve already suffered food shortages and rationing in the supermarkets. I never thought I’d see the day when wildfires and rationing were an issue in Norfolk, but that day is here. 

Everybody knows about the climate threat now, and almost everyone I spoke to on my walk is worried, yet few are doing much about it.  

As the failures of COP28 and our own government’s backtracking on its climate commitments show, we can no longer rely on someone else to step up and sort this problem for us. 

Climate affects all of us, wherever we live, and we must all stop looking away. In our private lives and at work, in our shopping, our conversations, and our voting, we must all start treating climate change as the emergency it is.


Dr Charlie Gardner is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist, writer, and environmental activist