§ 76. Mr. BevanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps the Government are taking to improve the capability of predicting climate change.
§ 83. Mr. Andrew MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action the Government is taking to improve scientific understanding of climate change.
§ Mr. JackTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what contribution the United Kingdom is making to the scientific assessment of global climate change.
§ Mr. TrippierThe Department is adding to the Meteorological Office's established expertise in climate modelling with the climate prediction programme at a cost of some £6 million per year. The programme will enable the United Kingdom to continue to play a leading international role in improving predictions of climate change.
This Department and the Department of Energy have supported the major international science assessment undertaken by Dr. John Houghton, chief executive of the Meteorological Office, as chairman of the World Meteorological Office/United Nations Environment Programme Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), working group I. The total cost will be £675,000. The working group will finalise its report at a meeting in Windsor on 23 to 25 May.
A wide range of research aimed at improving understanding of climate change and its impacts is supported from the science budget through the research 252W councils. Expenditure in 1989–90 was estimated at some £35 million. Part of the additional allocation to the research councils announced on 10 January this year will further extend this work.