Switzerland nominates Thomas Stocker as candidate for IPCC Chair

Bern, 18.02.2015 - The Federal Council announced today that it will nominate Professor Thomas Stocker from the University of Bern as a candidate for Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The term of office of the current IPCC Chair, Rajendra Pachauri, is drawing to a close. The members of the IPCC are due to elect his successor in October 2015.

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 for the purpose of compiling periodic reports on the latest scientific, technical and socio-economic information about climate change and the options available for managing it. It published its Fifth Assessment Report in November 2014.

Since 2008 Professor Thomas Stocker has acted as co-chair of the first of the three Working groups involved in the compilation of the IPCC reports: Working Group 1, The Physical Science Basis. He is Professor of the Climate and Environmental Physics department of the Physics Institute at the University of Bern. This department has gained worldwide renown for its research on the greenhouse gas concentrations measured in samples of Antarctic ice and for its work on the modelling of changes in the climate, both past and future. 

The candidates for the IPCC Chair must be nominated by the member countries. However, the IPCC Chair is elected on personal merit and does not represent any country. The member countries must announce their candidates six months in advance of the election. The latter will take place during the 42nd Session of the IPCC which will be held in Dubrovnik (Croatia) from 6 to 10 October 2015.


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Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
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