The Imperial man setting governments’ agenda on climate change action

Words: Peter Taylor-Whiffen

The landscape

Arguably the best chance of mitigating the effects of climate change is political will – the most significant recent actions in the fight to slow global warming are intergovernmental collaboration such as the Paris Agreement, the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

But who advises the governments? Since 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been providing policymakers with regular scientific assessments on global warming, its implications and its potential future risks – identifying the strength of scientific agreement in different areas and indicating where further research is needed.

The challenge

As the IPCC says: “Every increment of warming results in rapidly escalating hazards: more intense heatwaves, heavier rainfall and other weather extremes further increase risks for human health and ecosystems. In every region, people are dying from extreme heat. Climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to increase as the Earth gets warmer. When the risks combine with other adverse events, such as pandemics or conflicts, they become even more difficult to manage.”

This is the challenge facing Imperial’s Professor Jim Skea, who was elected IPCC Chair at the UN Environment Programme’s African headquarters in Nairobi last July. “It is a huge honour,” says Skea. “We’re not politicians so we don’t set the agenda for discussions and climate goals, but we make sure everything we do is directly relevant to the current landscape.”

The priorities

As the effects of climate change become ever more apparent, so the IPCC’s focus changes, says Skea. “One of the biggest messages for governments now is that this is no longer just about reducing emissions, but how we’ll adapt to a world with more extreme weather, more forest fires, a rise in sea level. How will our agricultural systems adapt? How will we adjust to changes in rainfall or temperature?”

And the IPCC is tasked with finding scientific-based solutions. “We are constantly challenged to make our findings actionable, so governments can actually do something. In our last report on emissions reduction, we specifically identified near-term actions bringing big short-term benefits – things like renewable energy or reducing leakage of methane from natural gas systems, which is an obvious quick win. At the first meeting of this cycle (term), the governments have challenged us to produce guidelines on how countries can formulate strategies for adapting to climate change, and that is a priority.”

But even with broad international agreement, the IPCC still has to handle different governments’ national priorities. “In the panel’s early days, the challenge was about convincing people that human beings are affecting the climate. Now that’s established, the IPCC’s focus has moved to what is done about it. All those governments bring a lot of perspectives and sometimes very different ideas.”

The collaboration

“I think it’s a particular achievement that every sentence, every word in our final report, is agreed by governments by consensus in a single room, together with the scientists. Pulling off that trick is an enormous feat,” says Skea.

And although he has the top IPCC role, he’s far from the only Imperial person informing the work. “There’s the Grantham Centre on Climate Change, some of whose scientists are prominent authors in IPCC reports. Then there’s work being done at the Centre for Environmental Policy, the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Energy Futures Lab looking at how different engineering approaches reduce emissions. And the Business School is working on the economics and funding of environmental policies and other research in chemical engineering and physics.”

The future

So, with the clock ticking, is there still time for bodies such as the IPCC to have an impact? “We’re trying to promote the message that every fraction of a degree makes a difference, so there’s never a point at which we will have run out of time completely,” he says. “There will always be a case for action to avoid the worst effects of climate change.”

And the IPCC – and his role in it – will have a huge impact on that action. “Carbon is a bit like money,” he says. “It flows to every part of society and the economy, and touches on absolutely everything. Therefore, so does the IPCC’s work. It’s hugely valuable and I’m proud to be part of it.”

Professor Jim Skea was Professor of Sustainable Energy, 2009–2023. He is now is currently Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.