Memorandum submitted by the Natural Environment
Research Council
1. The Natural Environment Research Council
(NERC)[40]
welcomes the opportunity to comment, albeit briefly.
2. NERC welcomes the publication of the
Government's Climate Change Programme and the commitment expressed
by the Government to take action to mitigate and adapt to climate
change.
3. We also welcome the emphasis on the importance
of research and a solid evidence base for policy development,
not least in the area of regional impacts and adaptation measures,
where significant uncertainties remain.
The Prime Minister continues to identify climate
change as "probably the greatest long-term challenge facing
the human race". Does the 2006 Climate Change Programme represent
a realistic strategy to prepare the UK to meet this challenge?
4. Our submission focusses on the need for
better research co-ordination, which we believe is critical to
enabling the UK to meet the challenge of climate change.
5. Last year, NERC spent approximately 28%
of its science budget allocation on research related to climate
change. As one of the major players in climate change research,
active in research on atmospheric chemistry, thermohaline circulation,
Antarctic ice-sheet behaviour, ocean acidification, dynamic vegetation
and biodiversity, we are surprised not to be mentioned in the
Programme as a key supplier of the scientific evidence base. In
developing our next strategy, to supersede "Science for a
Sustainable Future 2002-07" we intend to continue to place
emphasis on climate change research, and to focus in particular
on the need for predictive capability based on monitoring and
process-based studies. We will also retain a focus on the effects
of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystems.
6. The NERC-funded community is in an excellent
position to contribute, not least because its skills meet the
multidisciplinary demands of climate impacts research, including,
in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (jointly funded
by NERC, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council), the social science dimension.
7. We believe in the importance of excellent
co-ordination and co-operation between Defra (including the Hadley
Centre), NERC and other key contributors such as the other Research
Councils, and hope that Defra will join with NERC to show leadership
to draw together the collective forces of these organisations
in a national initiative on the prediction of environmental change.
There is a strong case for closer working to maximise links between,
for example, NERC's monitoring and process-based studies and the
Hadley Centre's expertise in model development.
8. We also hope that Defra will be able
to better define its evidence needs, so that NERC and others can
target their research activities more appropriately. It would
have been helpful to dedicate a chapter in the Programme document
to research needs and research co-ordination, to give coherence
to the various scattered references.
9. NERC submitted responses to both the
Stern Review and Energy Review consultations. In our response
to the former[41],
we provide more detailed information on research areas requiring
further effort, and believe that this research would help the
UK to meet the challenge of climate change.
Does the Government need to do more, and if so
what, to try to ensure that it meets the 20% reduction in carbon
dioxide emissions by 2010?
10. On the basis of research carried out
by the British Geological Survey (BGS), NERC suggests that the
Government would be right to further investigate the potential
of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Technology[42]
in order to help achieve its target of a 20% reduction in carbon
dioxide emissions by 2010, or at least, given the time needed
to implement the technology, its longer-term emissions reduction
targets.
May 2006
NERC's research centres are: the British Antarctic
Survey (BAS), the British Geological Survey (BGS), the Centre
for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and the Proudman Oceanographic
Laboratory (POL). Details of these and of NERC's collaborative
centres are available at www.nerc.ac.uk
40 NERC is one of the UK's eight Research Councils.
It funds and carries out impartial scientific research in the
sciences of the environment. NERC trains the next generation of
independent environmental scientists. Its priority research areas
are: Earth's life-support systems, climate change, and sustainable
economies. Back
41
Please see www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/FC3/78/climatechange-helen_1.pdf
for NERC's submission to the Stern Review on the Economics of
Climate Change. Back
42
Please see Ev 70 and Ev 104 at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmsctech/578/578ii.pdf
for the BGS and NERC submissions to the House of Commons Science
& Technology Committee 2005 Inquiry into "Meeting UK
Energy and Climate Needs: The Role of Carbon Capture and Storage". Back
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