UK to join new EU ocean science scheme amid El Nino concerns

Britain is to join a major new ocean science programme led by the European Union, as Andy Burnham's government seeks closer ties with the bloc.

Oceans have crept up the political agenda in recent months, with the current "exceptional" El Nino weather pattern, emanating from the equatorial Pacific, expected to fuel more global extreme weather this year.

Warm seas fuelled Britain's heatwaves this summer, and scientists fear a small but dangerous chance that warming could lead to the collapse of a key ocean current that keeps Europe warm.

Meanwhile concerns have rippled through the science community about the uncertain future of the US's substantial science programmes that underpin much global research.

In June the European Union launched the €92m (£78m) OceanEye programme to better fund and research global seas. It will also create a virtual "digital twin" model of the ocean to help scientists get to grips with how dramatically seas are changing.

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Environment Secretary Angela Eagle will today announce Britain is joining the scheme, Sky News can reveal, sharing much more data from bodies like the Met Office with counterparts in the EU and Canada than previously.

Her department said the initiative would help inform future flood defences and coastal planning, helping to protect the country from extreme weather like storms and flooding.

She told Sky News the UK is a "climate-science superpower" and said joining the alliance would "allow us to work with our allies to better protect our oceans and shield communities from the impacts of climate change".

"International cooperation is at the heart of tackling the climate and nature crisis and no country can tackle this threat alone."

She will sign up Britain at an event at the UN headquarters on Wednesday, alongside European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The step is part of a broader strategy by Andy Burnham's government to boost UK-EU partnerships, including on technology, defence, and manufacturing - though the latter has been stalled by a proposed "Made in Europe" law.

Richard Allan, climate science professor at Reading University, welcomed the step at a time when "some monitoring programmes that have run for decades now face an uncertain future".

He said the ocean "shapes the weather we feel on land" but added "no country can watch the whole ocean alone".

President Donald Trump's administration is seeking cuts to its ocean programme NOAA, whose data feeds into systems used around the world. However, it maintained $368m (£275m) of funding for its Ocean Observatories Initiative after outcry over proposals to scrap it.

The data is also likely to be used to inform Britain's maritime defensive activities.

Klaus Dodds, professor of geopolitics at Middlesex University London, said the US is "the preeminent science superpower but is being challenged by China and the EU" and has become regarded a "less reliable partner".

Ocean data is crucial for naval defense and domain awareness in a world where European seas are "targeted by Russia and the shadow fleet," according to Professor Dodds.

(c) Sky News 2026: UK to join new EU ocean science scheme amid El Nino concerns