Hoesung Lee says change of tack for UN climate science body is needed to galvanise global action on emissions reductions

The new leader of the world’s most authoritative climate science body has declared it’s time researchers shifted away from tracking the impacts of climate change - and focused instead on finding solutions.



In his first interview since taking charge of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Hoesung Lee announced a major change in direction for the organisation’s exhaustive science reports.

“We have been doing a fantastic job in identifying the problem of climate change. At the same time we have been somewhat slow in identifying the solutions aspects,” Lee told the Guardian. “I believe the next cycle of the IPCC should be more focused on opportunities and solutions.”

He said the change in approach was needed to spur governments and business to do more to cut the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. “The actions on the part of policy makers to tackle climate change will be much more energised on the basis of opportunities and solutions ... I believe that will be the next phase.”

The South Korean energy and climate economist took over from Rajendra Pachauri, who was forced to stand down in February after being accused of sexual harassment by a female researcher at his institute in India.

Lee steps in only weeks before governments gather in Paris in December to try to strike a deal to avoid catastrophic climate change. He is only the fourth head of the IPCC since it was set up in 1988 to provide the best science to governments on climate change.

The IPCC is widely seen to be at a crossroads, with rising anticipation that governments will reach a deal to limit warming to the internationally agreed goal of 2C at the Paris meetings.



Yvo de Boer, a former UN climate chief who now heads the Global Green Growth Institute in South Korea – where Lee has also served – endorsed the idea of a shift towards a more solutions-based research for the IPCC.



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“I think as we move into the post-Paris implementation domain, a solution-oriented IPCC analysis is going to be increasingly important,” De Boer said.



As the impacts of climate change become more evident in real time, some scientists have also pushed to redefine the mission of the IPCC – suggesting scientists produce smaller, focused reports at more frequent intervals.



“We have gone beyond the point of where scientists are saying: ‘Hey, people there is a problem here’,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “We really should be furthering the use of science for policy makers. We should be very much switching to the mode of what are the questions you have? What science can we bear on those questions?”



He went on: “Right now we have 1,000-page reports – all of which is great science – but very little of which is actually of relevance to anybody but scientists.”



Lee also said he wanted to increase the participation of experts from developing countries, and devote more resources to studying the effects of climate change on global poverty.



Until now, the IPCC has produced blockbuster reports every five to seven years tracking the extent of climate change, its effects on humanity and the natural world, and its solutions.



But Lee said that message needed a sharper focus to spur government and business leaders to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. “The window of opportunity to effectively address climate stabilisation is closing very rapidly,” he said.



The last big report from the IPCC, released in late 2013 and early 2014, found that at current emissions levels the world is only 30 years away from exhausting its “carbon budget”, triggering dangerous and irreversible climate change.



“The message is very clear that for the world as a whole we must achieve global peaking in a very short time and that the world as a whole must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases at least 3% a year so that by 2100 we will achieve zero emissions,” Lee said. “It is a tough goal, I understand that.”



As Lee saw it, the main instrument for achieving those emissions cuts was a carbon price. “Study after study has found that a price on carbon is the most important building block in addressing the climate change problems that we need to resolve,” he said. “There has to be a drastic shift in energy investment away from fossil fuel extraction to the development of renewable technologies.”



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Lee also endorsed calls by Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, for companies to come clean about their fossil fuel holdings.



“Such a call is in line with the messages given by the scientific literature,” Lee said.



The new IPCC chair said he wanted to involve scientists from the worlds of industry and finance – and not just government and academia – in the production of the reports. “There is a vast amount of information and resource in the industry and finance sector and we can benefit by capitalising on such information,” he said.



Lee said he also wanted to increase the use of IPCC reports by business. “A great deal of the information we have generated in terms of scientific finding and assessment have not been given much impact,” he said.