Co-Chair of Working Group III (Mitigation) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Scientific Support

This award supports the scientific activities of the Co-chair of Working Group III (Mitigation) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and scientific members of the Technical Support Unit (TSU). The TSU is co-located at Imperial College London and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). IPCC is a world body which provides policymakers with assessments of the science of climate change, its impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation. IPCC offers policymakers a snapshot of what the scientific community understands rather than promoting a particular view. IPCC sets out options from which policymakers may choose in pursuit of their goals, but it does not tell governments what to do. Assessment involves a structured approach to interpreting that knowledge and a synthesis of the scientific findings which in itself constitutes a substantial contribution to knowledge. IPCC operates through three Working Groups (WGs). WG III is concerned with climate change mitigation, i.e. reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and removing them from the atmosphere. Prof Jim Skea was elected co-chair of WG III in October 2015 for a period of seven years along with Prof PR Shukla of IIMA. Their task is to produce the WG III contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report, to contribute to the Synthesis Report along with other WGs, to contribute to a Special Report on the implications of keeping global temperature increases below 1.5 degrees as requested by the UN Climate Convention, and to lead the production of a further special Report on climate change and aspects of land use. Co-chairs coordinate the efforts of hundreds of volunteer authors to produce these reports and gain approval for the final reports from IPCC governments. They are backed up by a TSU comprising scientists and other support staff. For the first time, the WG III TSU is co-located at the institutions of the developed and developing country co-chairs. This award provides support for Professor Jim Skea, the UK co-chair, and members of the scientific staff located in London. A parallel award from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), includes official development assistance (ODA) and covers operations and communications costs in London and posts at IIMA. WG III's work covers all aspects of energy, including energy supply technologies, energy demand, energy infrastructure and whole energy systems approaches. The reports also covers agriculture, forestry and land use. To meet this remit, IPCC contributors include physical scientists and engineers but also those from the biological sciences, economists and other social scientists. The scope of IPCC WG III products is wide and they are interdisciplinary in character. The Special Reports on 1.5 degrees and land use, involving collaboration across Working Groups, are exceptionally interdisciplinary. To deliver the products, the co-chairs and the TSU must: scope and set the scientific framework for reports in consultation with governments and other stakeholders; select authors to contribute to the drafting; engage with authors to ensure that the quality of individual report chapter is assured; ensure that review comments by experts and governments are addressed to adequately; lead the drafting of the Summaries for Policymakers which are the most high-profile IPCC outputs; and steer the reports through approval sessions of IPCC involving all member governments. IPCC's activities have a major impact on climate change policy nationally and internationally. The widely cited reports have influenced the development of the UN Climate Convention and are used to inform national policy-making. This award enables the UK and UK science to have a significant influence on climate policy nationally and internationally through the framing and direction provided by the co-chairs and through the efforts of the many UK researchers who will be mobilised to contribute to IPCC.