Royal Holloway Professor joins Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to create Special Report

Professor David Simon, from the Department of Geography, has been invited to join a team at Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to create the organisation's Special Report on climate change and cities.

This is a distinctive mark of esteem and Professor Simon is one of only two UK-based members and the only university academic to be invited to produce the report, with the team convening in Riga, Latvia from 16 April.

The IPCC produces occasional special reports to highlight key themes or topics, which is a complement to their regular seven-year assessment report cycles.

A decision to produce this Special Report was made to show the growing importance of urbanisation and urban contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as that of towns and cities - areas which are now where most people experience the impacts of climate change and where the battle to contain it will be won or lost.

The Special Report will provide the opportunity for a more detailed analysis, as well as devoting more attention to the necessary steps to adapt sustainability and resilience of towns and cities.

Professor David Simon said: "I feel very honoured to have been invited to take part in creating the next Special Report, one of great significance.

"The impact of climate change on urban areas, not least on the poorest residents living and working in the most vulnerable areas, has long been one of my central research foci.

"In recent years, I've had the privilege to advise the UN-Habitat, the UN's specialist human settlements agency, developing their initial Cities and Climate Change Initiative, launched in 2009, and to contribute chapters to successive editions of their flagship 'World Cities Report' in 2020, 2022 and this year.

"However, this will be my first experience of working within the IPCC, which is assembling a high-powered group of leading urban climate change specialists from around the world, and I am very much looking forward to it."