IPCC elects Jim Skea as the new Chair. ProClim Steering Committee member Sonia Seneviratne becomes Working Group I Vice-Chair

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.

The following IPCC Vice-Chairs are elected: Ladislaus Chang’a (Tansania), Diana Ürge-Vorsatz (Hungary) and Ramón Pichs-Madruga (Kuba).

ProClim Steering Committee member Prof. Sonia Seneviratne from ETH Zurich has been elected as Working Group I Vice-Chair.

The election of the new IPCC Bureau, which will have 34 members, including the Chair, opens the way for work to start on the IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report, expected to be completed in the coming five to seven years. The Panel will also elect the 12 members of the Task Force Bureau on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI).