How to avoid the impact of climate change

It is critical that mitigation and adaptation policy are underpinned by strong scientific evidence. The Climate Change Mitigation Advice team carries out original underpinning research on aspects of dangerous climate change, including Amazon dieback, the cryosphere, and marine impacts. Our primary focus is to provide relevant evidence to our stakeholders, and to do this we make use of a variety of tools including global climate models, simple climate models, and pattern scaling.

We also integrate a wide range of relevant research from across climate science, climate impacts, economics, social science and ecology, through our collaborations with other centres of expertise. We work closely with many areas of the Met Office, including the Adaptation who provide practical mitigation and adaptation advice to a wide range of customers.

Key Aims

• To undertake core research for understanding dangerous climate change and its implications.
• To investigate what emissions pathways might avoid undesirable climate outcomes.
• To provide advice on whether proposed mitigation options are technically and economically feasible.

Current Projects

• The AVOID programme - A government funded research programme carried out by a consortium led by the Met Office. Other members of the consortium are the Tyndall Centre, the Walker Institute, and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change. The programme develops scientific advice to inform policy on avoiding dangerous climate change.
• ENSEMBLES is a research project involving 66 partners from across Europe. Led by the Met Office, and funded by the European Union, it has been studying the likely effects of climate change across Europe as a whole.
• ICE2SEA - An EU project to estimate the future contribution of continental ice to sea-level rise.
• Reviewing the scientific evidence base underpinning the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change for CO₂ emissions targets and UK carbon budgets.