The impact climate change is having on insects and plants

Video report by ITV News Meridian's Joe Coshan

Climate change has already begun to seriously impact insects, animals, trees and plants.

Some species are already migrating to the South East because of global warming.

Deepa Senapathi, University of Reading said: "Changing temperatures, changing number of frost days, changing rainfall patterns, all of these can have impacts on key life history events.

"For example you might find that insect pollinators are emerging earlier in spring or going later into their hibernation.

"Similarly plants or crops might be altering their flowering timings and these interactions matter because if there's a mismatch between the timings of plants and the pollinators that pollinate them, this can have detrimental impacts on the yield and quality of produce, so there is an obvious impact on human health and wellbeing."

The warmer temperatures has meant some farmers are having to adapt and change their use of land.

Ten years ago, Neil Davy set up Britain's first outdoor commercial olive grove in Kent.

In 2011, 200 olive trees were planted on the farm on the Isle of Oxney.

Three varieties of olive were selected, which were thought to have the necessary characteristics and resilience to survive in the southern English climate.

Neil said: "The reality is, it's no longer a nice thing to think about alternative crops, it's becoming something which is now essential."

Ancient woodlands are also key to mitigate the impacts of climate change while also providing a home to thousands of insects and animals.

However, to meet the UK’s target of being carbon net zero by 2050, we need to plant 100 million trees every year for the next 30 years.

Bridget Fox, Woodland Trust said: "They say the best time to plant a tree was 100 years ago, the second best time is today, so we can get on and harness their benefits."

If we let nature take its course, experts say the impacts of climate change will be catastrophic, but they believe we have the tools to disrupt it.