Report: Melting Arctic ice raises flood risk for 1.5 million UK homes

Rising sea levels, caused by melting Arctic ice, could risk 1.5 million properties in the United Kingdom (UK) flooding, a House of Commons committee said in a report on Friday.

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) also said there is growing evidence suggesting that changes in the Arctic could make weather events in the UK more extreme.

Calling on the country’s government to appoint an “envoy to the Arctic,” lawmaker James Gray said: “Whitehall (the government) has not been paying enough attention to the Arctic. Four ministers jotted around different departments with no oversight on Arctic policy is a missed opportunity.”

Gray, chairman of the Environmental Audit Sub-Committee on Polar Research, added: “The fact the ministers are yet to meet indicates a lack of enthusiasm on Arctic matters at the heart of the government: they must meet quarterly given the drastic changes we are witnessing in our changing Arctic.”

The report concluded that with much of the Arctic is under-researched, and more information is needed about what a changing Arctic could mean for people’s way of life.

In the report, the EAC pointed to research that the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe. The committee has urged the UK government to move the Arctic up the political agenda, calling for it to be more ambitious in reducing domestic emissions, and leading efforts to champion Arctic science globally.

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