The observer: Britain: It's hot - but climate research is being cut - by Juliette Jowit, Gaby Hinsliff and Robin McKie

For the complete report in The Observer click on this link

Britain: It's hot - but climate research is being cut - by Juliette Jowit, Gaby Hinsliff and Robin McKie

Britain's leading centre for researching climate change has been ordered to cut its budget, despite warnings that global warming is one of the most critical and costly threats facing the world today.

The Met Office has been told to make savings of nearly 3 per cent to its main budget, prompting experts to condemn the government as 'hypocritical' on climate change, given its response to the recent Stern report which argued that unchecked climate change could cost billions.

The move emerged as the Met Office said yesterday that with this summer and this autumn both breaking temperature records, and with the mild weather set to continue, 2006 was now on track to be the hottest year in the last 200 years. Most experts believe this provides further proof that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide are having a dramatic impact on weather patterns worldwide.