Zemo Launch Director appointed Chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Wed 26 July 2023
View all news
Professor Jim Skea has been elected as the new Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. He was formerly Launch Director of Zemo Partnership (then LowCVP).
Jim Skea has nearly forty years of climate science experience and expertise and will lead the IPCC through its seventh assessment cycle.
On his appointment Jim Skea said: “Climate change is an existential threat to our planet. My ambition is to lead an IPCC that is truly representative and inclusive, an IPCC looking to the future while exploiting the opportunities that we have in the present. An IPCC where everyone feels valued and heard.
“In this, I will pursue three priorities – improving inclusiveness and diversity, shielding scientific integrity and policy relevance of IPCC assessment reports, and making the effective use of the best available science on climate change. My actions as the Chair of the IPCC will ensure that these ambitions are realized.”
The election took place at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, where the IPCC is holding its 59th Session.
Jim Skea, aged 69, is Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College in London. During the IPCC’s just completed sixth assessment cycle, Skea was the Co-Chair of Working Group III, assessing the mitigation of climate change. Most of his career, spreading over decades, has been dedicated to ensuring that the challenges of climate change are understood, and actions to avert them are taken.
In 2002, Prof Skea - working alongside Konstanze Scharring (now the SMMT's Policy Director) - was the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership's Launch Director.
Image: Courtesy IPCC
Related Links
< Back to news list