(Left to Right) Pierre Friedlingstein, Peter Cox, David Stephenson and Matthew Collins in Kunming.
Exeter climate scientists in China for first IPCC author meeting
Four experts from the mathematics research institute at the University of Exeter recently headed to Kunming, China, for the first author meeting for what is set to be the world’s most comprehensive assessment report on climate change.
The team from Exeter were at the meeting to help start writing the working group one (WG1) scientific basis volume of the 5th Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The WG1 volume assesses the physical and scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change.
Because of their scientific and intergovernmental nature, the IPCC reports provide rigorous and balanced scientific information on climate change essential for policymakers.
Professor David Stephenson, Director of the Exeter Climate Systems (XCS) research centre and lead author for Chapter 14 on ‘Climate Phenomena and their Relevance for Future Regional Climate Change’, said “It is a wonderful recognition of the University of Exeter’s expertise in climate science to have so many renowned authors involved in writing the IPCC report. No other University had such impressive representation amongst the 300 nominated authors present at the meeting.”
Other nominated authors from Exeter Climate Systems present at Kunming were:
- Professor Matthew Collins who is Coordinating Lead Author in Chapter 12 on ‘Long-term Climate Change: Projections, Commitments and Irreversibility’.
- Professor Pierre Friedlingstein who is a Lead Author in the same chapter.
- Professor Peter Cox who is a Lead Author in Chapter 9 on ‘Evaluation of Climate Models’.
Professor Stephenson added: “I am incredibly proud that Exeter Climate Systems has the scientific and statistical expertise to lead and contribute significantly to three different chapters in this forthcoming IPCC WG1 report. This really helps put the University of Exeter on the international stage in climate science.”
In addition to these WG1 authors, the University of Exeter also has nominated lead authors in the WG2 and WG3 volumes of the IPCC report (Dr Suraje Dessai, Professor Michael Finus, and Professor Catherine Mitchell).
The University of Exeter’s total of seven invited experts taking part in the report is more than any other academic institution in the world, and only Exeter and the University of East Anglia have experts working in each of the three working groups of the report.
More information is available on the IPCC website.
Date: 18 November 2010
