{"id":271142,"date":"2023-08-03T11:52:30","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T09:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=271142"},"modified":"2023-08-03T11:52:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T09:52:33","slug":"british-professor-elected-to-lead-un-climate-panel-in-key-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=271142","title":{"rendered":"British professor elected to lead UN climate panel in key decade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From\u00a0Phys.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kelly MACNAMARA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jim Skea (R) succeeds Hoesung Lee (L), both seen here in October 2018, as chair of the UN climate panel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

British professor Jim Skea was elected to lead the UN’s climate expert panel Wednesday, taking the helm of the organization charged with distilling the best science to inform global policy in a critical decade for humans and the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skea, a Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London who co-chaired the report on curbing planet-heating emissions in the latest round of assessments, was elected chair at a meeting of the 195-nation organization in Nairobi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Climate change is an existential threat to our planet,” he told delegates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With impacts already sweeping the planet\u2014from devastating floods to blistering heatwaves\u2014the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) plays a key role in the growing scientific knowledge on\u00a0climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skea, 69, takes on the role as the world is already a third of the way through a crucial decade for\u00a0climate action<\/a>, which will set the course of warming and impacts that will ripple out for decades or even centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will oversee hundreds of experts\u2014who work on a voluntary basis\u2014and be charged with ensuring the smooth functioning of the institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the IPCC’s key final report\u2014synthesizing a host of major assessments since 2018\u2014was postponed for “operational reasons”, meaning it was not ready before crucial UN\u00a0climate<\/a>\u00a0negotiations in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That document, dubbed a “survival guide” for the world, was finally released in March this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the world will cross the key Paris Agreement goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius warming since pre- industrial times in the early 2030s and urged dramatic reductions in planet-heating emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Forceful advocates’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Skea, who has nearly forty years of climate science experience, outlined the main priorities for his tenure as improving inclusiveness and diversity, protecting the IPCC’s integrity and policy relevance and making sure it has the best available science to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He succeeds South Korean economist Hoesung Lee, who is stepping down after nearly eight years at the helm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final vote was between Skea and Brazil’s Thelma Krug, an IPCC vice-chair and former researcher at her country’s national space institute, who was one of two candidates vying to be the first woman chair of the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The role of scientists in this\u00a0global crisis<\/a>\u00a0now surpasses the conventional confines of research and analysis,” said Tasneem Essop, of campaign group Climate Action Network International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They are being called upon to serve as forceful advocates for practical solutions, actively championing measures based on equity and justice that will effectively tackle the escalating climate change crisis.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Challenges are huge’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Under the 2015 Paris treaty, nations promised to collectively cap the rise in the planet’s average temperature at “well below” 2C, and at 1.5C if possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get to that more ambitious target, the IPCC says emissions need to drop 43 percent this decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet they continue to rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With assessments normally published every five to seven years, there are concerns that the next round of IPCC reports will come too late to sufficiently galvanize the global response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That will put the focus on potentially more timely special reports like the influential 2018 one focused on a 1.5C cap on warming, which Skea also had a\u00a0leadership role<\/a>\u00a0on and that made it clear that this aspirational goal was a better bet for a climate-safe world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivier Boucher, climatologist at the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, said the next IPCC leader may have to be the one to finally say that the world cannot limit temperature rises to 1.5C in time\u2014but would have to try to reverse the warming after breaching that threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The IPCC is really going to have to change its approach and focus much more on overshoot scenarios,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview with Spain’s Climatica, Skea underscored that humans still have power over the future trajectory of warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The challenges are huge, but the key thing is to not become paralyzed into inaction by a sense of despair,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 2023 AFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British professor Jim Skea was elected to lead the UN’s climate expert panel Wednesday, taking the helm of the organization charged with distilling the best science to inform global policy in a critical decade for humans and the planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":271149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691821559,691821560,691818381,691818126],"class_list":["post-271142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-british-professor-jim-skea","tag-climate-expert-panel","tag-ipcc","tag-un","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00FhH98gVXoAA4_YI.jpg?fit=1200%2C622&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-18xg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":345834,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=345834","url_meta":{"origin":271142,"position":0},"title":"It\u2019s too late to save Britain from overheating, says UN climate chief Prof Jim\u00a0Skea","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/07\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Why is the Telegraph publicising this propaganda?","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0rising-heat-stress-poses-grave-occupational-health-risk-for-workers-in-tamil-nadu-study.webp?fit=1200%2C765&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0rising-heat-stress-poses-grave-occupational-health-risk-for-workers-in-tamil-nadu-study.webp?fit=1200%2C765&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0rising-heat-stress-poses-grave-occupational-health-risk-for-workers-in-tamil-nadu-study.webp?fit=1200%2C765&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0rising-heat-stress-poses-grave-occupational-health-risk-for-workers-in-tamil-nadu-study.webp?fit=1200%2C765&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0rising-heat-stress-poses-grave-occupational-health-risk-for-workers-in-tamil-nadu-study.webp?fit=1200%2C765&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":354504,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=354504","url_meta":{"origin":271142,"position":1},"title":"IPCC U-Turn as it Prepares to Start Blaming Humans for Bad Weather","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/15\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Fears are growing that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could water down or even ditch its current finding that almost all types of extreme weather events have little or no sign of past human involvement, or any going forward to 2100.","rel":"","context":"In \"Attribution studies\"","block_context":{"text":"Attribution studies","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=attribution-studies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0Screenshot-2024-12-13-182901.jpeg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0Screenshot-2024-12-13-182901.jpeg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0Screenshot-2024-12-13-182901.jpeg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0Screenshot-2024-12-13-182901.jpeg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0Screenshot-2024-12-13-182901.jpeg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":346207,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=346207","url_meta":{"origin":271142,"position":2},"title":"Climate Activists Frustrated by IPCC\u2019s Refusal to Link Extreme Weather With Carbon Emissions","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/10\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Last June, the state-reliant BBC reported that human-caused climate change had made U.S. and Mexico heatwaves \u201c35 times more likely\u201d. Nothing out of the ordinary here in mainstream media with everyone from climate comedy turn \u2018Jim\u2019 Dale to UN chief Antonio \u2018Boiling\u2019 Guterres making these types of bizarre attributions.","rel":"","context":"In \"Attribution studies\"","block_context":{"text":"Attribution studies","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=attribution-studies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0PVHTHRCMLVH73EK45U6M6IVDKE.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0PVHTHRCMLVH73EK45U6M6IVDKE.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0PVHTHRCMLVH73EK45U6M6IVDKE.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0PVHTHRCMLVH73EK45U6M6IVDKE.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0PVHTHRCMLVH73EK45U6M6IVDKE.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":331505,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=331505","url_meta":{"origin":271142,"position":3},"title":"Climate Headlines\u00a0Claim,\u00a0But IPCC Details\u00a0Deny","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/04\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The advertising proverb says it all: \u201cThe large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.\u201d Unfortunately, climate science is rife with this. A research announcement is released and the same text appears in media articles everywhere, the only difference being who can attach the scariest headline.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate science\"","block_context":{"text":"climate science","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/428cb5e678da63e8f316391bc0d6116d.jpg?fit=1200%2C695&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/428cb5e678da63e8f316391bc0d6116d.jpg?fit=1200%2C695&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/428cb5e678da63e8f316391bc0d6116d.jpg?fit=1200%2C695&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/428cb5e678da63e8f316391bc0d6116d.jpg?fit=1200%2C695&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/428cb5e678da63e8f316391bc0d6116d.jpg?fit=1200%2C695&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":274634,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=274634","url_meta":{"origin":271142,"position":4},"title":"The Great Climate Change Science Bottleneck","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/20\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In a\u00a0video of an April IPCC scenario workshop, a panel discussion argued that the IPCC does not have any scenarios it merely assess scenarios. Professor\u00a0Tejal Kanitkar\u00a0called it out as nonsense in practice. There are too many (i.e. a powerful few) who design, select, and prioritize scenarios while also being influential\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0Bottleneck.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0Bottleneck.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0Bottleneck.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0Bottleneck.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0Bottleneck.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":290432,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=290432","url_meta":{"origin":271142,"position":5},"title":"COP28 President\u2019s \u201cNo Science\u201d Remark Blows Holes in Carefully Curated Net Zero Narrative","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"COP28 President and Chief Executive of the UAE state oil company Adnoc, Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber let the cat out of the bag this week when he said there was \u201cno science\u201d that says phasing out fossil fuels will achieve a cap on global warming of 1.5\u00b0C.","rel":"","context":"In \"1.5\u00b0C limit set\"","block_context":{"text":"1.5\u00b0C limit set","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=1-5c-limit-set"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/00MBZ-UAI_Dr.-Sultan-Al-Jaber_website2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/00MBZ-UAI_Dr.-Sultan-Al-Jaber_website2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/00MBZ-UAI_Dr.-Sultan-Al-Jaber_website2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/00MBZ-UAI_Dr.-Sultan-Al-Jaber_website2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/00MBZ-UAI_Dr.-Sultan-Al-Jaber_website2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271142"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271150,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271142\/revisions\/271150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/271149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}