To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to communicate to the public (a) the causes of climate change, (b) the impact on the United Kingdom and the wider world of climate change and (c) the possible solutions to climate change. (135658)

The current “Act on CO₂” campaign supports a range of multi media, tools and activities aimed at educating, informing and enabling individuals to think about changing their behaviours and to adopt lower carbon lifestyles to help tackle climate change. Through the Climate Challenge Fund, over 80 local and community-level projects are communicating the causes and impacts of climate change.

Last year’s influential Stern Review on climate change continues to raise awareness, both domestically and globally, of the impacts and costs associated with climate change. DEFRA has supported, and was well represented at, the IPCC meetings ensuring that the messages contained in the summary reports are robust and based on sound science.

DEFRA funds the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) to advise organisations on how they might be affected by climate change, so that they can adapt to its impacts. Among other activities, UKCIP works with the Met Office Hadley Centre to provide climate change scenarios for the UK (the next of which are due for publication in 2008); provides tools for stakeholders to assess climate risk and plan adaptation strategies; and coordinates research about how climate change will affect the UK at national and regional levels.