ACADEMIA

A new report on the economics of climate change has revealed that the UK needs to do more in terms of scientific research, despite leading the field on the issue. Sir Nick Stern’s review calls for a greater investment into the UK’s research, along with improved coordination between projects. The increased effort, says the report, would allow researchers to fully answer questions on adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Scientists need more supercomputing capacity to help them understand changes to the world's climate, according to the UK Met Office. Despite the UK’s pioneering work on climate change, the national weather service is ranked 69th in the world in terms of supercomputing capacity, and scientists are working at a level that could realistically make use of capabilities up to 10,000 more powerful. The costs of upgrading to a class-leading supercomputing standard, notes the report, could be outweighed by the potential benefits of learning more about climate change and its damaging effects. “The true cost of calculating the risk that global warming poses to the UK’s way of life is currently not possible,” commented Mark Hutchinson, Chief Executive of the Met Office. “The Met Office has some of the best climate scientists in the world and knows best how to use its data, but it could do so much more for the benefit of the country given the chance.”