What does climate change in the Arctic mean for the UK and wider world?
The Environmental Audit Sub-Committee on Polar Research holds the first session of its inquiry into the UK and the Arctic Environment, hearing from academics and experts in the field.
Meeting details
The Arctic is warming up to four times faster than the rest of the world. In March 2023, Arctic sea ice reached its fifth-smallest winter peak in 45 years. In 2019 the UN called the thawing of permafrost one of the top ten emerging issues of environmental concern.
The session aims to provide MPs with an overview of the most significant environmental changes occurring in the Arctic, with likely focuses to include ice decline, biodiversity loss, permafrost melt, and methane emissions. Witnesses are likely to be asked to describe the scale and consequences of these changes for the UK and the wider world.
MPs are also likely to seek witnesses’ insights on how best to protect the Arctic environment, how changes in the Arctic are affecting UK weather patterns, and what the consequences would be for the region if the Paris Agreement target of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5°C are not reached.
The session also looks at the impact climate change in the Arctic has on the communities that live there. The Sub-Committee is likely to explore what the biggest challenges are for indigenous communities, as well as how environmental governance in the Arctic has been impacted in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.