The government said it had committed almost 50 million pounds to the centre’s research and climate modelling programme until 2015. – Photo courtesy by Creative Commons

LONDON: The UK government pledged 60 million pounds ($95 million) to support the Met Office Hadley Centre’s Climate Programme until at least 2015 to keep Britain at the forefront of climate science research.

The Met Office Hadley Centre is one of the world’s leading climate change research centres. Largely funded by the UK government, it informs and advises on climate science issues.

“This investment will significantly improve their capacity to produce the ground-breaking robust evidence for which they are internationally renowned,” UK Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said in a statement on Wednesday.

The government said it had committed almost 50 million pounds to the centre’s research and climate modelling programme until 2015 and another nearly 11 million pounds for new supercomputer capacity and hardware.

Many UK science and research institutions have seen cuts in funding over the past couple of years as the government seeks to reduce the UK’s deficit.