On 12 June 2023, BIOPOLE’s Geraint Tarling and Andy Shepherd gave evidence at a hearing called by the All-party Parliamentary Polar Research Sub-Committee exploring UK’s relationship to the Arctic environment. This parliamentary committee is considering the UK’s contribution to the Arctic through scientific research.

Inquiries of this sort start with a call for written evidence, to which BIOPOLE responded with a document submitted in April 2023. The document answered questions around the benefit to the UK of supporting Arctic research activity, how UK institutions can be supported to enhance the UK’s leadership in Arctic science, and what research activities concerning the climate and environment ought to be eligible for UK support through NERC.

Geraint and Andy were invited to the subsequent hearing to expand on this evidence and provide the committee with further insight into Arctic science and its pressing concerns, particularly with regards the scale and rate of Arctic environmental change and our capacity to study it. Among the main issues we raised was the need for UK led programmes making longer-term measurements in the Arctic – laying the foundations for such a programme could be a lasting legacy of BIOPOLE. The committee’s findings are expected to be released in around 6 months from the date of the hearing. 

The BIOPOLE inquiry report is published here.

Geraint Tarling (left) and Andy Shepherd (middle) providing evidence to the All-party Parliamentary Polar Research Sub-Committee (right)

The author of the blog – Geraint Tarling (British Antarctic Survey)