§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to the statement made on 13 March,Official Report, column 168 if he will make a further statement on the role Her Majesty's Government are playing in the intergovernmental panel on the climate change, and their work on clarifying the climatic consequences of deforestation in eastern Amazonia.
§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley[holding answer 10 April 1989]: The United Kingdom's delegate to the UNEP/WMO intergovernmental panel on climate change is Dr. John Houghton, Director General of the Meteorological Office. The IPCC has set up three working groups, on the science of climate change, on the impacts of climate and on formulation of response strategies. All are to report by mid-1990. Dr. Houghton leads the science working group. The Government are supporting a central unit for this group, based on the Meteorological Office, and is funding working and plenary meetings. It is also supporting Dr. 582W Martin Parry of the university of Birmingham, an internationally recognised expert on the impact of climate change, to contribute to the working group on impacts. Officials and experts from several Government Departments are contributing to the working group on response strategies. We have been assured that change in vegetation cover, which includes tropical deforestation, is one of the climate forcing factors being reviewed by the science working group.