Presented by:
Professor Tianjun Zhou, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Professor Glenn McGregor, Department of Geography, Durham University
What will be covered?
Extreme climate events, such as heat waves and flooding, have become more common and intense in recent years. These extreme events pose substantial risks to society and in particular people’s health, with an increase in climate sensitive health impacts projected under climate change.
In this webinar, the speakers will present the scientific evidence for human’s influence on climate change, outline possible climate futures and the changing nature of extreme events based on climate model projections and the consequences of climate change for human health.
They will examine how climate models and climate information can be used to inform the development of adaptation plans for minimising the physical and mental health impacts of extreme climate events with a particular focus on heat waves.
They will also explain why it is crucial to limit global warming by a rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and reaching net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
About Knowledge Across Borders
Knowledge Across Borders is a partnership between Durham University in the UK and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The series brings together researchers who are outstanding in their fields to stimulate new, creative and critical thinking, open up new perspectives across cultures, deepen collaboration and share fresh insights.
About the speakers
Tianjun Zhou is a senior research scientist in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He works on climate modelling and climate dynamics, and how the climate system responds to anthropogenic and natural forcing agents.
He served as the Lead Author on the 5th and 6th Assessment Reports by the Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is also a member of the CLIVAR (Climate and Ocean: Variability, Predictability and Change) Working Group on Coupled Modelling and co-chair of CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project-phase 6) Global Monsoon Model Inter-comparison Project (GMMIP).
Having published over 300 refereed scientific articles, he was on the list of Elsevier’s Most Cited Chinese Researchers from 2014 to 2020 and ranked as a Highly Cited Researcher in GeoSciences of Clarivate Analytics in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
He is the Advisory Editor of Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science and was associated editor of Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society from 2014 to 2019.
Glenn McGregor is Professor of Climatology in the Department of Geography at Durham University and Principal of Ustinov College, Durham University's sole postgraduate-only college.
His research focuses on synoptic climatology, biometeorology, hydroclimatology and climate and society.
He is a Working Group II lead author of the 6th Assessment Report on Climate Change for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a member of Public Health England's Health Protection Unit's Research Advisory Board and steering committee member for the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN).
He is a review editor for the journals Weather and Climate Extremes and Anthropocene and editor for the Springer book series Biometeorology.
In addition to current IPCC responsibilities, he was a lead author for the IPCC Special Report on Extreme Events (SREX) and a contributing author to the IPCC 4th Assessment Report. Previous international leadership roles include the World Meteorological Organisation's Lead Expert for Climate and Health, Chief Editor of the International Journal of Climatology and President of the International Society of Biometeorology.
Find out more from our Knowledge Across Borders website:https://www.dur.ac.uk/kab-webinars/
