InterAcademy Council Announces Speakers for IPCC Review Meeting in Montreal on June 15

Audio of Presentations Will Be Webcast Live

The InterAcademy Council (IAC) committee conducting an independent review of the procedures and processes of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will hold its next meeting on June 15 at McGill University in Montreal.

In a public session, the committee will hear scientists’ presentations on IPCC assessment processes. Speakers include Robert Watson, professor of environment sciences and director of strategic development, University of East Anglia, and chief scientific adviser, U.K. Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs; he was also the chair of IPCC from 1997 to 2002. Other speakers are Christopher Field, director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, Stanford, Calif.; John Christy, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and director of the Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama, Huntsville; and Hans von Storch, professor, Meteorological Institute, University of Hamburg, and director, Institute of Coastal Research, GKSS Research Center, Geesthacht, Germany. Christy and von Storch were both participating authors in prior IPCC assessment, and Field is the co-chair of Working Group II of the current IPCC assessment.

The public session will run from 8 a.m. to noon EDT, beginning with opening remarks by Heather Munroe-Blum, principal and vice chancellor, McGill University; Roderick Macdonald, president, Royal Society of Canada.  An agenda is available here; a live audio webcast of the presentations will also be available.
 
The meeting will be held in the ballroom of the McGill Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish St., Montreal.   Reporters who wish to attend should register in advance by contacting William Kearney, wkearney@interacademycouncil.net or +1 202 334 2144/ +1 202 450-9166 (mobile).  Additional media contacts below.

The committee expects to deliver a peer-reviewed report with its findings and recommendations by Aug. 30. The IAC is an organization of the world’s science academies.  It was established in 2000 to mobilize top scientists and engineers around the world to provide evidence-based advice to international bodies such as the United Nations and World Bank.  The IAC Secretariat is hosted by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam.

Other IAC media contacts

Irene van Houten or Hugo van Bergen
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam
+31 20 5510733 / +31 6 1137 5909 (mobile)/ + 31 20 551 0769 /+31 6 2159 9939 (mobile)
irene.van.houten@bureau.knaw.nl / hugo.van.bergen@bureau.knaw.nl

Alice Henchley or Bill Hartnett
The Royal Society, London
+44 207 451 2514 / 207 451 2516/ +44 7931 423323 (mobile)
alice.henchley@royalsociety.org / bill.hartnett@royalsociety.org