§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What analysis they have made of worldwide natural disasters during the past 10 years; what conclusions they have reached; and what are the implications for the priority of environment policy in Government Action. [HL1468]
§ Lord WhittyMy department works alongside the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development, exploring methods for predicting the impact of environmental stresses on stability and defining the options for UK government response through, for example, environmental policy, aid programmes or defence diplomacy. The seriousness of these issues is reflected in the high priority that220WA environment is given in government policy, domestically and internationally.
In addition, we support multilateral work to mitigate the effects of natural disasters. The UK is the second largest donor of the United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP), which takes a leading role in assessing the environmental impacts of natural disasters. Its recent activities include work in Venezuela and Mozambique. UNEP's most recent assessment of the effect of natural disasters is contained in its Global Environment Outlook 2000 report, which was published in September 1999.
While it is not possible to attribute any specific natural disaster to human-induced climate change, it is expected that global warming will be accompanied by changes in extreme weather events. This conclusion has arisen from the results of part of an £8 million-pa research programme funded at the Hadley Centre by my department, which is continuing.
To combat the effects of climate change, we have just announced a programme for reduction in UK greenhouse emissions by 21.5 per cent, almost double our 12.5 per cent target under the Kyoto Protocol. This programme could also achieve the more difficult national goal of a 20 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions.