The climate scientist Bart van den Hurk, project coordinator of CLIMAAX and scientific director at Deltares, has been appointed as co-chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II for the seventh assessment cycle. Van den Hurk was elected during the IPCC plenary meeting at the home of the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya.
As an IPCC working group is led by two co-chairs, Van den Hurk will be joined by scientific colleague Winston Chow, professor of Urban Climate at Singapore Management University. The Working Group II assesses climate change impacts from a global to a regional view on ecosystems and biodiversity, and on people and their diverse communities, cultures and settlements.
For the next ~6 years we will lead the compilation of the science that helps to map, design and implement the many many choices that need to be made to keep societal development match the challenges of our climate in transition. And we will call upon many, many experts from all parts of the world that need to contribute to this work. We’re getting ready for the job!
Bart van den Hurk
The seventh assessment cycle started in July 2023 and set its length to five to seven years, keeping the door open for the seventh Assessment Report (AR7) to feed into the second Global Stocktake in 2028. As the new co-chair of Working Group II, Van den Hurk has set several priorities, including:
- Focusing on vulnerable communities and actors that have the potential to contribute;
- Involving experts from developing countries in the IPCC assessment process;
- Creating a greater overlap between traditional IPCC Working Groups I, II, and III;
- Strengthening the link between IPCC outputs and decisions in the field by hosting more workshops aimed at regions with high adaptation pressure.
