Met Office climate research could be cut

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Concern has mounted in the Met Office over potential future budget cuts, endangering future advanced climate change research.

Just as the Prime Minister has set out to try and get a new climate change agreement in time for the G8 nations in June, there is concern from senior officials in government that the Ministry of Defence, in its latest push to reduce costs, might try to reduce the budget of the Met Office.

If the cutbacks do happen, Met Office officials are said to be worried that it could affect their position as one of the leading climate change research institutions. Under particular threat could be the Met Office’s supercomputers, the muscle behind its research and the ability to generate global weather simulations, forecasting weather all over the world for up to the next century.

One concern is that when the supercomputers need replacing, probably by 2011, the Met Office will not be able to buy leading-edge models to replace them. The fear is that it will then rapidly lose its leading position among climate science institutes, and will see its best staff drift away.

Met Office staff are reluctant to speak publicly about the situation. But a former boss of the organisation feels under no such constraints. "It seems to me that the MoD is unwilling or unable to acknowledge its responsibility, as owner of the Met Office, to the other government departments and to the public at large, for the future," said Peter Ewins, who was Met Office chief executive from 1997 to 2004.

The MoD has insisted that it would "continue to provide the Met Office with the funding it needs in order to deliver the vital services required by its customers in government".