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BSS-25
COVID19-IPCC-REPORT
IPCC to dedicate new report to co-founder John Houghton
DHAKA, May 1, 2020 (BSS) – The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
will be dedicated to the memory of leading climate scientist Sir John
Houghton.
Sir John, who died of complications from COVID-19 on 15 April 2020 aged
88, was one of the key figures in the creation of the IPCC in 1988, and
served as Chair and Co-Chair of Working Group I, which assesses the physical
science basis of climate change, for the IPCC’s first three assessment
reports from 1988 to 2002, according to an IPCC press release from Geneva
which was received here today.
The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report, Climate
Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, will assess large-scale climate
changes, climate processes and feedback and regional climate information. It
is being prepared by 233 authors from 62 countries.
“Sir John Houghton played a fundamental role as Working Group I’s Chair
and Co-Chair in the IPCC’s first, second and third assessments. He had deep
insights into both basic climate knowledge, and societal relevance. In
addition, he deliberated very carefully on how to communicate to society with
rigour, humility and clarity the state of knowledge,” said Working Group I
Co-Chairs Val‚rie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai in a joint statement.
“The co-chairs and vice-chairs of Working Group I – the Working Group I
Bureau – unanimously agreed to dedicate the Sixth Assessment Report to Sir
John to acknowledge his legacy,” they said.
Sir John’s work was a major factor in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize
to the IPCC in 2007, shared with former US Vice-President Al Gore.
Sir John was Director-General of the UK Meteorological Office from 1983 to
1991 and in 1990 established the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Change,
now one of the world’s foremost research organisations in climate science,
especially climate modelling and the detection and attribution of climate
change using climate models and climate observations.
Sir John was a brilliant communicator among scientific colleagues,
policymakers and the public at large, explaining the fact and threat of
climate change with clarity and directness.
John Houghton was born on 30 December 1931 in North Wales, where he was
raised. According to his granddaughter, Hannah Malcolm, he excelled in at
physics and at the age of 16 he won a scholarship to study mathematics and
physics at Oxford University, where he later became Professor in atmospheric
physics in 1958.
In 1958, he became an Oxford professor, later becoming chair of the World
Climate Research Programme.
In 1972, Sir John was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, the world’s
oldest continuous scientific society. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
in 1991.
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