It was a sunny morning in late April when a massive power outage suddenly rippled across Spain, Portugal, and parts of southwestern France, leaving tens of millions of people without electricity for hours. Cities were plunged into darkness. Trains stopped and metro lines had to be evacuated. Flights were cancelled. Mobile networks and internet providers went down. Roads were gridlocked as traffic lights stopped working.
Britain must prepare for global heating far in excess of the level scientists have pegged as the limit of safety, the government's climate advisers have warned, as current plans to protect against extreme weather are inadequate. Heatwaves will occur in at least four of every five years in England by 2050, and time spent in drought will double. The number of days of peak wildfire conditions in July will nearly treble for the UK,