Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of the Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary for tackling climate change.

The UK is a co-proponent for a proposal to designate a large-scale Marine Protected Area in the Weddell Sea, which will be submitted for consideration at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in October. While the Marine Protected Area will not tackle climate change, one of the objectives for the Weddell Sea Marine Protected Area proposal is to establish scientific reference areas to monitor the effects of climate change, fishing and other human activities and to study, in particular, representative, rare, unique and/or endemic examples of marine ecosystems, as well as biodiversity and habitats. The Foreign Secretary will engage with key CCAMLR members to seek their support for this proposal.