Shaping global climate policy
When world leaders gather to negotiate climate targets, they don’t carry ice cores or satellite images into the room. Yet the evidence guiding their decisions often begins thousands of miles away in the frozen polar regions.
The stakes are not only environmental; without effective global action, climate change is projected to cost the UK economy around 7-8% of GDP by the end of the century - far more than the estimated ~1% of GDP needed to reach net zero. Understanding the risks is essential for shaping the right global response.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has a long history of shaping action on global environmental change. In 1985, BAS scientists working at Halley Research Station made a discovery that stunned the world: the ozone layer over Antarctica was thinning dramatically each spring. Within two years, governments agreed the Montreal Protocol, a landmark treaty to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals. It remains one of the clearest examples of polar science driving decisive global policy.
Today, BAS continues to play a pivotal role in shaping global decisions about our environment.
For decades, BAS scientists have studied how the polar regions are responding to a warming world – measuring thinning ice sheets, tracking retreating glaciers, monitoring changing ecosystems and detecting the global impacts of changing polar climates. By drilling deep into ancient ice and sediments, they reconstruct past climates, revealing how Earth’s system behaves under pressure and what that means for the future.
This evidence does not sit on a shelf. It feeds directly into assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the UN body that produces the world’s most authoritative climate reports. These assessments draw together thousands of scientific studies and are agreed line-by-line by governments, forming the scientific foundation for international agreements and national climate laws.
BAS scientists don’t just contribute research to the IPCC – they help lead the process. Over the past two decades, more than 30 BAS researchers have served on IPCC writing teams, taking senior roles in coordinating chapters and distilling the science for governments. BAS scientists also helped lead the landmark Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), which brought the risks of melting ice and rising seas into sharp focus for policymakers worldwide.
BAS expertise reaches beyond formal reports. Since 2013, BAS scientists have engaged nearly 900 international business and policy leaders in climate dialogue through executive programmes and global forums, including events at the World Economic Forum, bringing the realities of polar change directly to decision-makers.
Because what happens in Antarctica does not stay in Antarctica. Changes at the poles influence sea levels, weather patterns and coastal communities across the globe.
From revealing the ozone hole to helping lead the world’s most influential climate assessments, BAS shows how science gathered at the end of the Earth can guide decisions at its centre - turning evidence into international influence.