The Australian National University (ANU) has adopted a leading role in preparing the next international climate assessment. The assessment will be vital for informing nations about the need to increase their actions in order to avoid the dangers of global warming.
Three climate experts from ANU have been appointed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – Professor Frank Jotzo, Professor Xuemei Bai and Dr Kathryn Bowen. All three have been appointed as lead authors for the Sixth Assessment Report, which is set to be published in 2022.
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The report will guide the first full global stocktake in 2023. This is when all nations will decide on any new or improved actions required to achieve the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement. i.e. to keep temperature rises below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels.
The ANU Climate Change Institute Director, Professor Mark Howden, said the appointment of the three ANU academics, as well as 37 other Australian scientists is a testament to Australia’s research strength in tackling climate change.
“It is particularly pleasing to see improved gender balance, with women now being 40 per cent of the Australians in the author teams – a significant increase compared with the previous IPCC report,” said Professor Howden – the Vice Chair of the IPCC Working Group 2 that represents Australia and other countries in the region.
Many countries around the world are more and more feeling the effects of extreme and erratic weather. The IPCC’s work is crucial to addressing this and other issues linked to human-caused climate change.
More than 1000 people died last year, and 45 million people lost their home, livelihoods and services, as a result of the severe floods that hit Southeast Asia. It is thought that by 2030, millions of people and trillions of dollars of infrastructure will be at risk around the globe because of natural disasters such as flooding, drought and wildfires.
721 experts from 90 nations have been invited by the IPCC to take part in the Sixth Assessment Report, as either coordinating lead authors, lead authors or review editors.
Professor Frank Jotzo from the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy is the lead author for Chapter 13 in the Working Group 3 Assessment of mitigation on national and sub-national policies and institutions.
Professor Xuemei Bai from the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society, is the lead author for Chapter 8 in Working Group 3 Assessment of mitigation on urban systems and other settlements.
Dr Kathryn Bowen from the ANU Research School of Population Health, is the lead author for Chapter 7 in Working Group 2 Assessment of impacts and adaptation on health, wellbeing and the changing structure of communities.
The IPCC reports are being more widely used by state, local and city government, in addition to in industry that informs energy, infrastructure, health, environment and other policies and investments
Source:
Australian National University (ANU): http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/anu-takes-lead-role-in-next-global-climate-assessment
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