Professor Rowan Sutton (University of Reading & NCAS)

Professor Rowan Sutton, Director of Climate Research in the UK National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)

Speaker: Professor Rowan Sutton

Title: The UK National Climate Science Partnership (UKNCSP)

Abstract: Following the Paris Agreement and COP26, the agenda and priorities for climate science have changed radically. Climate science must evolve to deliver to the new solutions agenda. This requires new forms of partnership, which bring together capabilities and expertise in climate science with capabilities and expertise in many other disciplines, as well as new collaborations between scientists and practitioners in policy, planning and business.

The UK National Climate Science Partnership (UKNCSP) aims to harness and focus the UK’s climate science capabilities and help build the multidisciplinary collaborations required to enable a new solutions-focused approach that meets emerging needs for climate policy advice and solutions to the challenges of net-zero and building a climate-resilient United Kingdom.  As it develops, UKNCSP aims to work with both the public and private sectors, developing an end-to-end “climate decision value chain” to ensure that decision makers have access to the climate information they need.

UKNCSP has been formed initially through an agreement between the seven NERC research centres and the Met Office, building on a long history of productive collaboration. The partnership was announced by BEIS Chief Science Advisor Paul Monks at COP26. An early priority is strategic coordination of the UK’s capabilities in observing, modelling and predicting climate change and emerging impacts. Moving forward, building strong partnerships with UK Universities is a high priority.

This seminar will provide an overview of the ambitions of UKNCSP and an opportunity for discussion about how Universities could best engage and contribute to shaping the partnership as it develops further.

Bio: Rowan Sutton is Director of Climate Science for the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, based at the University of Reading.  His current roles include serving as Chair of the Met Office Hadley Centre Science Review Group, as Chair of the World Climate Research Programme Lighthouse Activity on Explaining and Predicting Earth System Change, and as a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the UKRI UK Climate Resilience Programme and.  His research interests focus on: climate variability and change; climate predictability and prediction; and climate risk assessment.