Cleaning Up. Leadership in an age of climate change.

It's climate, Jim, but not as we know it - Ep36: Prof. Jim Skea

Episode Summary

This week, Michael Liebreich is joined by Professor Jim Skea from Imperial College London’s Centre for Environmental Policy and the co-author of the seminal IPCC 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C. Bio Jim Skea is a Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London and the co-author of the IPCC 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C. He’s still involved in the works of the IPCC, currently co-chairing the Working Group III (focused on climate change mitigation) contribution to AR6. Between 2012 and 2017 Professor Skea was an Energy Strategy Fellow at the Research Councils UK. Meanwhile, he was also the President of the Energy Institute between 2015 and 2017. He led the UK Energy Research Centre and worked on UK’s energy transition scenarios from 2004-2012. Born in Scotland, Jim Skea read Mathematical Physics at Edinburgh University, followed by a PhD in Physics at Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory. After completing his PhD, Jim Skea stayed on at the Cavendish Laboratory where he worked as a research assistant. In 1981, he moved to Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he worked as a research associate and moved through the ranks, all the way to becoming a professorial fellow in 1994. He was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2004 and CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2013 for his work on sustainability.

Episode Notes

Further reading:

Official bio

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.skea

IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC

https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/  

EEA COVID Debate No. 7 - COVID-19 and climate change (December 2020)

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=SuXQdmjlmGA&list=PL1\_QSyumTz7Am38J5tXamPEWUhb5szB3Z&index=7

Jim interviewed by BBC for ‘Climate change: Technology no silver bullet, experts tell PM’ (October 2020)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54662615

IPCC Working Group 3

https://www.ipcc.ch/working-group/wg3/

Centre for Environmental Policy

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/environmental-policy/research/  

Climate Wars Episode IV: a New Hope for the 2020s? (17 December 2019) 

https://about.bnef.com/blog/in-climate-wars-episode-4-the-2020s-will-bring-new-hope/

RCP8.5 is Bollox - but for how much longer? (27 March 2021)

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rcp85-bollox-how-much-longer-michael-liebreich/

Climate Tipping Points 

https://climatetippingpoints.info/