Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
TYNDALL CENTRE
AND HADLEY
CENTRE LINKS
The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
was set up by the Natural Environment Research Council, the Engineering
and Physical Science Research Council and the Economic and Social
Research Council in 2000. It aims to research, assess and communicate
from a multi-disciplinary perspective, the options to mitigate,
and the necessities to adapt to, climate change and to integrate
these into the global, national and local contexts of sustainable
development.
The Hadley Centre was set up in 1990 at the
Met Office in Bracknell. Jointly funded by DEFRA and the MoD it
built on climate modelling research at the Met Office. Its main
aims are:
— to develop mathematical models of
the climate system;
— to use these to make state-of-the-science
predictions of change;
— to monitor climate change globally
and nationally;
— to attribute recent change to specific
causes, eg human activities.
The Hadley Centre provides a focus for climate
prediction activities in the UK and makes its predictions openly
available, to the Tyndall Centre, and others, such as the UK Climate
Impacts Programme (at Oxford), for the assessment of impacts and
adaptation response measures. The Hadley Centre also has many
links with developing countries. It supplies freely all the predictions
from its climate models, and these have been used extensively
to evaluate impacts. It has recently developed a regional climate
model for detailed predictions of climate change over any region
of the world, which was funded by DFID and DEFRA. The model has
already been supplied, and training given, to the Indian Institute
of Tropical Meteorology. Over the years the Hadley Centre has
welcomed a number of visiting scientists from developing countries
including China, India, and South Africa.
The two Centres' activities thus compliment
each other; Hadley Centre activities are concerned with climate
science and those of the Tyndall Centre with climate impacts and
responses.
With regard to the Tyndall Centre's activities
in developing countries, they are committed to working with scientists
and stakeholders in all parts of the world, especially developing
countries. They are currently engaged in the following projects:
(a) Measuring a country's vulnerability to
climate change: new indicators of vulnerability and adaptive capacity
The project utilises existing databases of economic,
social and institutional variables to provide a comprehensive
account of sensitivity and adaptive capacity at the national level
for all the countries of the world for which data are available.
Indicators of vulnerability and adaptive capacity should include
measures of insecurity and marginalisation, distribution of wealth
and assets, geographical and environmental dimensions, demographic
and health status characteristics and social capital.
(b) How do CDM projects contribute to sustainable
development: evaluating policy options for the clean development
mechanism—a stakeholder multi-criteria approach
Projects implemented as part of the Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol will have the dual mandate
of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to sustainable
development. Ambitious claims have been made about the likely
benefits of CDM projects in developing countries, but these claims
need to be critically assessed before investment in CDM takes
place. This project will undertake a theoretical and empirical
analysis of the implications of the CDM in developing countries,
in particular working with local stakeholder groups in Brazil
and Costa Rica.
(c) Integrated policy making in managing climate
change: linkage between climate change and trade policies
This project focuses on a topic of increasing
concern, the potential for incompatibility or conflict between
the multilateral trade rules, including investment regulation,
and the flexibility mechanisms adopted under the Kyoto Protocol.
Supporting organisations are the British Council and Shell International
and the case study is South Africa.
(d) Adaptation to climate change in developing
countries: policy responses to enhance resilience in Bangladesh
The objectives of this project are: to examine
the nature of the threat of global climate change to sustainable
development and livelihoods in poor countries, using case studies
in Bangladesh; to explore how lessons from coping and adaptation
to environmental change in other situations (particularly drought)
can be applied to understanding and identifying responses to impacts
of climate change, such as flooding and cyclones in Bangladesh;
to identify what measures can be taken under the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change to support and enhance resilience
to climate change, and encourage strengthening of the relationship
between sustainable development and adaptation under the Convention.
Partner institution is Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies.
(e) Linking sea level rise, coastal biodiversity
and economic activity in Caribbean island states: a pilot study
Amongst the regions that are most at risk from
climate change and sea level rise are small islands states. This
study will address how climate change will impact on the coastal
biotas of small island states through sea level rise, coastal
squeeze and extreme weather events, examining the potential impacts
on the tourist and fishing industries that depend critically on
biodiversity, together with the potential policy options for optimising
and maintaining ecosystem services upon which the small island
states depend. Partner organisation is CPACC—Caribbean Centre
for Planning and Adaptation to Climate Change.
(f) Capacity building with regard to development
and use of integrated scenarios for vulnerability and adaptation
studies in developing countries
This three-year project is funded by the GEF
Assessments of Impacts and Adaptation to Climate Change programme.
The Tyndall Centre will work with project teams in twenty countries
to provide training, advice and resources to allow them to undertake
national/regional vulnerability and adaptation studies.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
February 2002
| 
