IPCC Chairman challenges engineers to address climate change

04 October 2007

Dr R K Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, speaking in London last night, stressed the critical role of engineers in helping the world adapt to climate change. Giving The Royal Academy of Engineering’s International Lecture, Dr Pachauri urged the Academy to provide intellectual direction to government and the corporate sector in developing innovative and practical technologies.

“Our understanding of climate change and the actions that have been taken or are planned to meet this challenge present a remarkable history of how science and technology can help address problems facing human society,” said Dr Pachauri. He added that, “Were it not for the fact that scientists have assessed all aspects of climate change in their entirety, we would probably have had to wait several decades and endured several disasters to give us concrete proof of the impacts of climate change. It would perhaps have been too late at that stage to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases, which are responsible for the anthropogenic influence on climate change.”

He also specified the importance of engineering solutions now that the science is well established. “Adaptation will be necessary to address impacts resulting form the warming which is already unavoidable due to past emissions. Anthropogenic warming and sea level rise would continue for centuries due to the timescales associated with climate processes and feedbacks, even if greenhouse gas concentrations were to be stabilised. Hence the importance of implementing adaptation measures and creating institutional arrangements to enable early stabilisation.”

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