Cuts disarm UK's fight against global warming

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Cuts disarm UK's fight against global warming

Climate change scientists said the Natural Environment Research Council's decision to cut environmental research is tantamount to disarming the UK in the battle against global warming.



The charge comes as scientists at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) responded to news that NERC intends to press ahead with the majority of planned cuts at the environmental research body.

On behalf of its members at CEH, the scientists’ union Prospect said that council’s decision to provide an additional £1.3m in funding and relax the cap on the levels of commercial research CEH can undertake are welcome amendments to the original proposals.

But it warned the overall impact will still amount to a loss of crucial information on biodiversity and tangible evidence of climate change.

Prospect National Secretary Tony Bell said: "We recognise that NERC have provided additional funding to try a secure some of the long-term monitoring projects undertaken by CEH, but after years of under-investment this will all be absorbed in maintaining the crumbling infrastructure.

"At this stage it may provide a reprieve for just 40 of the 200 staff under threat. But the unique workload of each CEH scientist means the loss of one individual may denude the centre from an entire area of specialist knowledge.

"That is without taking into account expertise lost through staff unwilling to up-root their homes and families to relocate to the remaining sites. And from experience we know that very few former CEH staff will remain in the scientific sector, deepening the skills shortage in the UK’s science and engineering base."

The union said the relaxation of the maximum income CEH is able to generate for itself from commercial research, from £11m to 12.4m, was a positive step, but still way below levels CEH had attracted in the past.

Said Bell: "Although the exact details of the impact of NERC’s decision are still unsure, what is clear is that today’s decision will result in lost science and lost scientific capacity for the UK."

Under restructuring proposals announced by NERC in December, four CEH laboratories face the axe with the loss of 200 of CEH’s 600 staff. They include the sites at Winfrith in Dorset, Monk’s Wood in Cambridgeshire, Banchory in Scotland and Oxfordshire, plus the administration centre in Swindon.