Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the predicted global rise in sea levels as a result of the increase in Antarctic ice loss in the past four decades; and what steps they are taking, with international partners, in response to that issue.

The UK Climate Projections (UKCP18), published in November 2018 by the UK government-funded Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC), projected a global sea level rise of 29 – 112 cm by 2100, relative to the 1981-2000 average, depending on the scale of future emissions of greenhouse gases. Under a medium emissions scenario, the UKCP18 sea level projections show a net contribution from Antarctica of up to 26 cm by 2100.

The UK Government is committed to tackling climate change and is actively working with others to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement. This includes:

• demonstrating leadership by taking action to reduce our own emissions (we have reduced UK emissions by over 40% compared to 1990 levels);
• taking a prominent leadership role in multilateral fora such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, G20, G7;
• providing International Climate Finance (at least £5.8bn from 2016/17-2020/21) to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change; and
• promoting global alliances to encourage clean growth, such as the Powering Past Coal Alliance.
• Through organisations, such as the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) – a part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK is delivering world-leading interdisciplinary research to better understand environmental changes in the polar regions and its impacts. This is often in collaboration with international partners – for example, the £20 million over 5 years UK-US International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration to understand its ice sheet stability and potential impact on global sea-level rise. This and similar projects enable us to better adapt to and mitigate against global climate change.