Publication Abstract

An introduction to MCCIP and our first Annual Report Card

Paul Buckley and Stephen Dye, with considerable support from Patsy Falconer, Kate Francis, Kathy Kennedy and Dave Morris run the secretariat for the UK Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP). The partnership comprises marine scientists and sponsors from government, its agencies and NGOs. MCCIP was established in response to findings from Charting Progress, which identified major gaps in the transfer of marine climate change knowledge from the scientific community to end-users. Our principle aim is to ‘fill’ this gap by streamlining the transfer of information from the marine science community to policy makers and other marine stakeholders.

The secretariat has recently been working towards the production of the first annual report card, which will be one of the key deliverables of the MCCIP programme.

This year’s report card will set the scene for our understanding of marine climate change impacts by providing a wide-ranging assessment of the current state of scientific understanding on marine climate change impacts. Leading UK marine scientists submitted reviews on their particular areas of expertise, with the key messages appearing as headline statements in the ARC. The online version of the report card contains links to more detailed reports and full references for each subject area covered.

The ARC is due to have a full ministerial launch on 29th November

The partnership also maintains its own website (through David Lees) and is committed to following up the launch of the ARC with a series of workshops and seminars, regular newsletters, a response centre for marine climate change enquiries and we will collaborate with UKCIP to develop applications for their next marine climate change scenarios. 

Paul Buckley, MCCIP, December 2006