Source: BBC Radio 5 Live
URL: N/A
Date: 29/01/2014
Event: Walport: "in those parts of the world where there is rain, there will be more rain"
Credit: BBC Radio 5 Live
People:
Nicky Campbell: The government's Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Mark Walport said helping to tackle climate change was one of his key priorities, when he took on the role last year.
Rachel Burden: Now, in an unusual move, he's taken to the road and is touring some of the UK's leading science museums with his talk "The Planet in Our Hands", in an effort to drum up public awareness.
Nicky Campbell: Well, last night he was at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. We can talk to him now - good morning.
Mark Walport: Good morning.
Nicky Campbell: I mean, there is scientif- massive scientific consensus, on this - how big is it? I mean, how many people are disputing - what kind of percentage of scientists are disputing that it's man-made?
Mark Walport: I think overall it's a small percentage, but the important thing is that the expert community of scientists, who really know and have studied climate, have come to a very strong consensus. And actually there's an extremely good consensus process, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. My job is to advise government on science, and we need that best advice in order that we can have clarity about the policy debate. And what sometimes happens is that the, sort of, policy debate gets confused with the uncertainty about the science.
Nicky Campbell: Hmm, and there is consensus that there is climate change - is there similar consensus that it's man-made?
Mark Walport: Absolutely - I mean, the consensus is not only that there's climate change but there is an unequivocal human contribution to that.
Nicky Campbell: I see, and when you get senior politicians - such as the leader of UKIP, for example - saying - he said this to the European Parliament: "We may have made one of the biggest, stupidest collective mistakes in history, by getting so worried about global warming - there's ample evidence that climate change is happening, but that the world is cooling, not warming" -
Mark Walport: Well -
Nicky Campbell: Go on.
Mark Walport: Well, I mean, frankly that's just wrong. My job is to advise the government, and I've had the opportunity to talk to the Cabinet about climate, and I'm clear that the government is very clear about the scientific evidence behind climate change.
Nicky Campbell: You must be dismayed when senior politicians, with considerable support, say such things.
Mark Walport: Well, I think part of my job is to get out there and get the clarity about the science. And I think what tends to happen is that people who don't want to have the quite difficult policy debate - which we should all participate in - in how we should respond, think that the easiest way to deal with it is by denying or rubbishing the science. Um, I don't think that's a sensible thing to do. I think we have to start taking the best scientific evidence, recognising of course that there are uncertainties about the rate of progress in the future, but the direction of travel is very clear. Then, I think, we need to have a grown-up debate about the policy itself. And one of the reasons I'm out here talking about the science is to try and get that clarity, so that we can have a more general policy debate. But ultimately, of course, it is for our elected politicians to decide what we are going to do about it, in terms of not only trying to alter our energy demands but also our sources of supply.
Nicky Campbell: We can't stem the tide, as it were. It's... There is going to be considerable change to this Earth in the next 50 years. Is it just - is it not the fact we can perhaps limit the consequences but only marginally?
Mark Walport: Well, no, I think it's more than marginally, but, um, you're absolutely right, that we're already committed to very significant changes. We're putting up 10 gigatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, across the planet each year, from human emissions of carbon dioxide - that's 10 billion tonnes, 10 thousand million tonnes of carbon - and once it's in the atmosphere, it stays there for a very long time, the half-life of - half of it is 50 hundred, hundreds of years in some cases, so it's up there for a long time. What we have to do is to decide how much we can limit, globally, further contributions of carbon to the atmosphere.
Nicky Campbell: Has it caused extreme weather conditions in this country? Did it cause the floods? Was it a contributory factor?
Mark Walport: Well, that's one of the challenges of the communication, that people find it difficult to, as it were, separate weather from climate. And we know that, statistically, in those parts of the world where there is rain, there will be more rain. We know, as water levels rise, there will be more flooding. As the planet warms, there will be more prolonged periods of heat and less prolonged periods of cold, overall. But these are all statistical effects, and to attribute any single weather event to climate change is quite difficult. But the overall trend is clear, and is likely to progress.
Nicky Campbell: Sir Mark Walport, thank you very much indeed, for talking to 5 Live Breakfast.