‘Climate change cost our family farm £100k last year

Colin Chappel’s family have been farming in the village of Hibaldstow, North Lincolnshire, for four generations. Mr Chappel has dreamt of passing the farm onto his son, but earlier this year he seriously considered giving it all up. 

It followed a particularly difficult year in which he lost more than £100,000 in crops due to flooding. 

Poor harvests have always been part and parcel of life as a farmer, but Mr Chappel warned the experience is becoming more common as a result of climate change. 

“We have to work with Mother Nature. She is our boss,” he said. “As a nation, as a world, we need to act.”

It comes as the COP29 climate summit kicks off in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the world’s nations will negotiate deals on climate finance and the transition away from fossil fuels. 

Climate scientists told i many people in the UK still believe climate change doesn’t impact them, but warned Britain’s economy will take a huge hit in future years if urgent action isn’t taken. 

‘Something needs to happen now’

For Mr Chappel, climate change is already having a concrete impact on his business. 

During his 25 years managing the family farm, it has flooded seriously seven times. In comparison, his father was only affected by flooding once, in the 80s. 

Global warming causes more extreme rainfall as a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. 

October 2023 was the wettest October on record in Lincolnshire due to Storms Babet and Henk, which brought major destruction across the UK.

The flooding wiped out Mr Chappell’s entire wheat crop, which he supplies to Warbutons, costing him £100,000 in lost income. The water also damaged other crops, meaning the total loss to his business was higher. 

The experience of trying to meet his contracts was so stressful that Mr Chappell ended up in hospital with a suspected heart attack. It was at this point that he considered throwing in the towel. 

“I was staring at lakes of water, nothing in the ground, with a family that understandably wants to see more of their dad,” he says, describing that existential moment. 

But Mr Chappell is continuing on for the time being, as he takes pride in growing the nation’s food.

“Somebody needs to know how to grow food. We can’t just import it all. We are just offsetting our carbon footprint to another country,” he said.

COP28 ‘is a really crucial moment’

Sarah Becker, Senior Investigator at the climate NGO Global Witness, said Mr Chappell’s story is an example of how the UK is already being hit by climate change.

“I think often in the UK, people tend to feel like climate change isn’t happening yet, or it’s affecting other countries, but this is really starting to change now,” she said. 

“Climate change is already directly impacting food production in the UK, and we need to take it seriously, because we all need to eat,” she said.

Ms Becker said COP29 “is a really crucial moment for world leaders coming together to take serious action”.

Global Witness would like to see the world’s biggest oil and gas companies taxed for the historic role they have played in causing global warming.

They say doing so could help raise $1trn (£77bn) for a Loss and Damage Fund to help those bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.

While such a fund would primarily be aimed towards developing nations, Ms Becker said a similar mechanism could be used in the UK to help pay for climate damage nationally. 

‘We need to invest in dealing with climate change’

Dr Kamiar Mohaddes, Professor in Economics and Policy at the University of Cambridge, has warned the world economy, including those of developed countries, will take a major hit unless urgent action is taken to mitigate against climate change.

A study published by Dr Mohaddes, along with colleagues at the University of Cambridge, found the UK will lose 13 per cent of its GDP by the end of the century if things carry on as they are. This means the average Briton would see their income drop by 13 per cent, an estimate Dr Mohaddes described as “super conservative”. 

“The Covid shock was 4.5 per cent, which then was recovered very quickly, but we are saying 13 per cent, which won’t be recovered,” he said. “Think about the impact that had on people’s livelihoods and cost of living.”

Dr Mohaddes said all sectors in the UK will be hit as a result of climate change, particularly services and manufacturing.

For example, he described how extreme weather can disrupt the moving around of goods via the transport system or slow down labour productivity in industries like construction. 

“Every single sector is going to be impacted by one of the climate variables,” he said. 

However, Mr Mohaddes has also found that spending a relatively small percentage of GDP on climate adaptation and mitigation now will mean future GDP losses due to climate change will be significantly less.

“It’s a no brainer to invest in green. We just need the political will to do that,” he said.

While some see this incoming COP29 as a pivotal moment, others, like Colin, are sceptical. 

“Nothing seems to happen,” he said in reference to the previous UN climate summits. “What I’d love to do is get those people who are in charge of COP and say ‘stop talking hot air. Get on and do your actions.”