Super El Niño: UK govt warns people to ready stockpiles amid food security threat

UK Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle said people in the UK should store supplies in case of emergencies caused by the natural weather phenomenon, which is predicted to strengthen in the coming months. Her comments came after ministers were warned that Britain must prepare for the threat of food shortages.

Forecasters have warned that the weather pattern, which can increase the risk of drought and flooding across the world, needs to be taken seriously in Britain.

Dame Angela said this year's El Niño would lead to wetter winters and more extreme storms in the UK, which has already experienced one of the driest summers on record.

“We're about to experience probably the largest El Niño that has ever been seen. It will do a lot more damage in Asia with flooding, and therefore I think that we need to take it seriously,” she told The Guardian.

“If you've got a store of a bit of food that can keep you going for a while before the emergency services can get to you, you're going to be a lot better off than if you haven't. So some of it is that kind of preparation for just being a bit more resilient,” she added.

Rising threats to the national food supply 

Dame Angela's comments came after the National Audit Office (NAO) said disruption to Britain's food system was “becoming more likely and potentially more severe” because of extreme weather events. Ministers were told by the quango to do more to prepare for these potential “catastrophic events” that could cause severe disruption to the nation's food supplies.

The NAO called for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to urgently work with businesses and households to draw up emergency plans that could be used in the event of shortages. The warning came after wildfires and drought devastated crops across Europe this summer. The London-based Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit said that British farmers were facing the worst harvest on record after the extreme weather.

Disruption has so far been little more than inconvenient for the public, but industry leaders have warned that this would not always be the case unless the government did more to secure food supplies. The NAO urged Defra to learn from disaster planning in other countries and work with the Cabinet Office to ensure that national emergency planning includes a blueprint for securing food stockpiles.

Planet entering a global 'danger zone' 

Earlier this week, the UN warned that the current El Niño could be the strongest since records began, pushing the world into the “danger zone” of extreme weather.

Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said: “El Niño is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up.”

“Sea surface temperatures are rising, temperatures keep climbing, and the world is in the danger zone of extreme weather. The race now is between rising risks and our commitment to take climate action and protect people. We must win that race,” he added.

Sample Pacific Ocean temperatures in this year's El Niño are already more than two degrees Celsius above normal, the World Meteorological Organisation said. The UN agency classifies El Niño events as weak, moderate, strong or very strong, and this year's is expected to reach the highest level.