UK’s climate leadership and COP30

The UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is one of the world’s leading ocean scientific research and technological institutions, with a remit to deliver research from the coast to the deep sea. We have been delighted to work closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) across a range of project and programmes, including representing the UK at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC), the United Nations body responsible for supporting global ocean science and services. We have also worked to support the international rules-based system and specifically the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), including on securing legally binding agreements for conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. We welcome the opportunity to provide evidence to the International Development Committee.

We welcome the Government’s commitment to showing international leadership in tackling the climate crisis and linking climate action with foreign policy. We call on the Committee to consider whether the UK Government is doing enough to currently demonstrate this climate leadership, in particular, ahead of the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP30). With the government promising that climate and nature crisis will be central to the work of the FCDO it is important that this commitment is scrutinised, including in relation to UK’s international development work.

This should include continuous commitment to supporting the developing countries who are the most affected by the changing climate, such as Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The Government’s current strategy, published under the previous administration, is lacking in this space, and the International Development Committee’s own inquiry report, “The UK Small Island Developing States Strategy”, for which we provided written and oral evidence to, still hasn’t received a government response.

The potential of the ocean in the wider fight against climate change cannot be understated. Many of ocean policy matters are by their nature cross-departmental and global. However, there is a Ministerial gap within UK Government, with no-one currently and directly responsible for all ocean issues. At present, Annaliese Dodds MP is the Minister responsible for international agreements such as the BBNJ Agreement, with Emma Hardy MP responsible for ocean policy. There is a keen urgency for a specific Minister for the Ocean position which would have direct and exclusive responsibility for all ocean issues. It is important that cross-departmental work can continue at pace and ocean policy remains a priority, as this is for the benefit of UK’s domestic policy and UK’s international climate leadership.

Finally, with COP29 now concluded, and with evidence that developing states are not satisfied with how negotiations were conducted or the resulting agreement, now is the time to consider whether UK could do more to support them ahead of the next COP.              

If you require further information, please contact - Vita Zaporozcenko, Public Affairs Manager on   Vita.Zaporozcenko@noc.ac.uk

Not included in the word count

It would be helpful to the Committee if you could include the following information in your submission. Please note that your answers to these questions will not influence the selection process:

• Have you ever engaged with Parliament before (e.g. made a submission to a select committee)?
• Yes – please provide more detail (max 20 words) We’re regularly engaging with the parliament through select committee inquiries, as well as by supporting the work of the secretariat for the APPG for the Ocean.
• No

• Do you have personal or field experience related to international development issues?
• Yes – please provide more detail (max 20 words) – as per submission.
• No

• If you are invited to pitch your idea to the Committee, would you be able to travel to London and back within the same day?
• Yes
• No