UN appoints new head of climate science

Professor Hoesung Lee of South Korea has been elected as the new head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body tasked with assessing climate science.

The Geneva-based IPCC provides “a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts” and Lee will replace Rajendra Pachauri, who stepped down in February this year after a 13-year tenure.

The IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the former U.S. Vice President, Al Gore, has commissioned five climate assessment reports that are highly influential in forming the climate policies of the 197 UN member states.

The 2013-14 IPCC report concluded it is 95 per cent probable that human activities, led by the burning of fossil fuels, are the main cause of warming since 1950.

The IPCC met in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where the panel selected Professor Lee, until now a vice-chair of the UN body.

Lee was one of 6 candidates for the post with Belgium's Jean-Pascal van Ypersele coming second to Lee by 78-56 votes in a run-off.

He will be chair for 6-8 years, and will be the U.N.'s top climate scientist at the December 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, where almost 200 nations will seek to agree a new global deal to limit climate change.

The ICCP is currently led by scientists from Europe and North America and Lee has stated that the panel “should be able to increase the intellectual contributions from developing countries…and also improving gender balance in our author teams is very, very important.”