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UK research partnership responds to the urgent need for environmental action

   

NEWS RELEASE

Ref: 192/08
Date: 18 June 2008

Urgent action is needed from the research community, government and the public to respond to inevitable environmental change here in the UK and internationally. This is the message at the launch of the UK’s £1 billion Living With Environmental Change programme in London today (18 June 2008).

The launch comes just three weeks before world-leaders meet at the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan where ‘environment and climate change’ is billed as the main theme.

Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) is an unprecedented partnership of 17 research and policy-making organisations working together to find ways to cope with the environmental changes that are already starting to affect people’s wellbeing and livelihoods. The programme will address environmental change in the short-term and at regional level as well as the longer term global changes. A key objective is to provide the evidence-base that policy-makers and people need to make timely decisions that will enable us to prepare for the predicted changes and to manage the economic impacts.

Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, said:  “"The UK is on track to meet and go well beyond its Kyoto commitments, but as a country we must do much more. That is why we've introduced the Climate Change Bill in Parliament which will set a target to cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least 60 per cent by 2050, and are looking at whether that target should be stronger still.”

"LWEC will meet many of the needs identified by the Stern Review, the United Nations' Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and the recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The programme will also help us to implement the UK strategy for sustainable development."

Forecasts show that sea levels will rise, that low-lying areas like London will be more susceptible to flooding, and that the UK and other countries are likely to experience more frequent and intense storms and heat-waves. These changes will put increasing pressure on our natural resources.

The LWEC programme will transform how researchers, government and the public interact to tackle the key environmental challenges: climate change; loss of biodiversity; the availability of sustainable water and food supplies; preparing for and managing extreme events; protecting people, animals and plants from disease; and alleviating poverty in developing countries. The programme is an acknowledgement from researchers and policy-makers that climate change is only one part of a much bigger challenge: global environmental change caused by rapid economic and population growth.

LWEC will make a significant contribution to strengthening the knowledge and understanding we need to develop resilient ecosystems that ensure a sustainable supply of food and water is available throughout the world. 

Work on the programme is already underway in China, Sub-Saharan Africa, India and the Amazon basin. This component of LWEC is known as the Ecosystems Services for Poverty Alleviation programme, and is aimed at designing research programmes to inform the management of ecosystems in developing countries. Researchers and policy-makers met in Cape Town on 17 June to discuss initial assessment reports from these regions and plan the way forward.

The public will play an important part by providing information to the LWEC partners, who intend to engage with people about the changes we all face. This will help LWEC identify the research priorities and decide the best way to channel the research into effective policies that will enable people to make choices about their future.

The LWEC Partners Board meets in two days time (Friday 20 June) to discuss specific priorities for its national and international programme of research. This will be a ‘living’ research programme that will change and adapt as needs and priorities are identified throughout the life of the Living With Environmental Change programme.

The larger part of LWEC will be built by the partners realigning relevant existing and planned research programmes, actively directing them to meet the LWEC aims and objectives. Many new activities will also be designed and funded, using resources from the last government spending review.

Issued by the Natural Environment Research Council on behalf of the Living With Environmental Change programme partners

Further information

Notes to editors

1.  Living With Environmental Change is launched at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, on Wednesday 18 June 2008.

Speakers:

  • Lord Selborne, Chair of Living With Environmental Change
  • The Rt. Hon Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
  • Ian Pearson, MP, Minister for Science and Innovation
  • Professor Robert Watson, Chief Scientific Adviser for Defra
  • Professor Alan Thorpe, Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council

2.  Partners within Living With Environmental Change are:

Research Councils UK

  • Natural Environment Research Council
  • Economic and Social Research Council
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
  • Medical Research Council
  • Arts and Humanities Research Council

The research councils all receive funding from the Science Budget, through the Department of Innovation, Skills and Universities.

Departments of State, Governments and related Agencies

  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
  • Department for International Development
  • Department for Communities and Local Government
  • Department for Transport
  • Welsh Assembly Government
  • Scottish Government
  • Local Government Association
  • Environment Agency
  • Scottish Environment Protection Agency
  • Natural England
  • Met Office

 

 

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Page published: 18 June 2008