There are three new appointments to the Adaptation Committee. This is in addition to four new expert adviser appointments across the two Committees.
Committee appointments
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has appointed Professor Evans, Professor Fowler, and Dr Romanello to the Adaptation Committee. They will cover infrastructure, farming, and health within their roles. They have each been appointed for a term of three years to help deliver the biennial Progress Reports and the Climate Change Risk Assessment Independent assessment.
- Professor Chris Evans works at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology on the biogeochemistry and sustainable management of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, from semi-natural to intensive agricultural landscapes. His research focuses on peatlands, greenhouse gases, nutrients and the carbon cycle.
- Professor Hayley Fowler is Professor of Climate Change Impacts at Newcastle University and Director of the Centre for Climate and Environmental Resilience. Her research focuses on improved physical understanding of changing precipitation extremes, floods and droughts and providing better projections and guidance for climate adaptation of infrastructure systems. She will start from February 2025.
- Dr Marina Romanello is Principal Research Fellow and Executive Director of the Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change, an independent and multi-disciplinary research collaboration of almost 100 academic centres around the world. It is headquartered at University College London’s Institute for Global Health.
Expert advisers
The Adaptation Committee has appointed Professor Betts, Professor Davies, and Professor Dawson as expert advisers. Their extensive experience will remain valuable to the CCC as it develops its adaptation advice to Government.
The Mitigation Committee has appointed Professor Willis as an expert advisor, specifically aiming to provide expert insight into the role of households and the public in the transition to Net Zero. These appointments will help the CCC to deliver its key pieces of statutory advice over the next year.
- Professor Richard Betts is Chair in Climate Impacts at the University of Exeter and Head of Climate Impacts Research at the Met Office Hadley Centre. He was a lead author on the fourth, fifth and sixth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and led the Technical Report for the third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3). He joins the Adaptation Committee as Expert Advisor for CCRA4.
- Professor Michael Davies is a Professor of Building Physics and Environment at the UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering (IEDE). At UCL his research interests relate to the complex relationship between the built environment and human well-being. He will sit as an expert adviser until the end of April 2025, to support the publication of the progress report.
- Professor Richard Dawson is Professor of Earth Systems Engineering and Director of Research in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University. Over the last two decades his research has focused on the analysis and management of climatic risks to civil engineering systems. He will remain on the Committee until the end of his term in February, before becoming an expert adviser until the end of April 2025, to support the publication of our progress report.
- Professor Rebecca Willis is a Professor in Energy & Climate Governance at Lancaster University, where she leads the Climate Citizens research group. She is an Adviser to Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living Initiative and the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund. In 2020 she was an Expert Lead for Climate Assembly UK, the Citizens’ Assembly established by the UK Parliament. Previously, she was Vice-Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, advising the Prime Minister and First Ministers of the devolved administrations, from 2004-2011.
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