The Committee and secretariat congratulate Professor Piers Forster on being awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours list.
Piers has been on the Committee since 2018, serving as interim Chair from June 2023 to July 2025. He chaired the Committee across a change of Government and oversaw the production of many key publications. These include the UK’s Seventh Carbon Budget advice, carbon budget advice for the Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive, as well as a number of progress reports to Government.
He is Director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures and Professor of Physical Climate Change at the University of Leeds. Piers also served as a coordinating lead author for several Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports including the landmark 1.5°C Special Report, shaping global understanding of climate change.
Nigel Topping CMG, Chair of the Climate Change Committee said:
“I commend Piers for his achievement. This accolade is a deserved recognition of his dedication to translating complex atmospheric physics into understandable insights. He was a brilliant interim Chair of the Committee for two years and his work has helped the UK to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“It’s vital that science and evidence remain at the heart of conversations about climate change and I look forward to continuing to work with Piers to bridge the gap between analysis and action.”
Piers was recently reappointed to the Committee for another five years.