Time and Location: 6:00PM, Thursday 9th November - Mott Lecture Theatre
Title: 'Observed and projected climate change impacts'
Lecturers: Prof Richard Betts
Abstract:
Impacts of human-caused climate change are now becoming clear in every part of the world, and will continue to increase in severity if carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to build up in the atmosphere as a result of ongoing burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. This talk provides an update on the latest evidence for observed climate change impacts and projections of future risks, and explains how these assessments are made. Confidence and uncertainty in future projections will be discussed, including in relation to potential ‘tipping points’ in the climate system and their implications.
Professor Richard Betts MBE is Head of Climate Impacts Research at the Met Office Hadley Centre and Chair in Climate Impacts at the University of Exeter. He obtained a BSc in Physics Department at the University of Bristol in 1991 and MSc in Meteorology and Applied Climatology at the University in 1992 before joining the Met Office Hadley Centre to work on modelling the land surface and vegetation in climate models. He was awarded a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Reading in 1998. Richard has published over 100 papers on a range of topics on Earth System modelling and impacts assessment, with a particular interest in land ecosystem impacts and carbon cycle feedbacks. He served as a Lead Author on the 4th, 5th and 6th Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and led the Technical Report for the UK’s 3rd National Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3). In 2019 he was awarded an MBE for Services to Understanding Climate Change. He has recently joined the Climate Change Committee as Special Advisor to the Adaptation Committee to work on the 4th CCRA.
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