Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what research his Department is supporting into the potential impact of Arctic warming on (a) the UK climate system, (b) shifts in the jet stream and (c) weather patterns.

UK Research and Innovation’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has a range of vessels, aircraft, and autonomous underwater and aerial vehicles which capture data to help better understand the potential climate impact of Arctic warming. There are a number of research initiatives across the region contributing information into datasets and models to improve predictions. This includes CANARI, a £12 million collaborative research programme to improve knowledge about how climate variability and change in the Arctic-North Atlantic region will impact the UK, with a focus on extreme weather and rapid, disruptive change.

Through the Met Office, DSIT supported the Polar Amplification Model Intercomparison Project, within the Hadley Centre Climate Programme, which investigated factors driving polar amplification and how the global climate system responds to changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.