Professor David Simon from the Department of Geography has been selected as a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR7 Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.
Professor David Simon
The team will comprise of 90 authors from various stakeholder groups worldwide, drawn from more than 1,200 applicants.
The IPCC is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.
This new study will be the only substantive special report of the seventh assessment cycle and represents the culmination of efforts over many years to secure appropriate emphasis on the position and role of urban areas within the work of the IPCC.
As a part of the United Nations system, IPCC has historically been focused on national-level emissions trends and efforts to mitigate those and adapt to the impacts of accelerating climate change.
However, ongoing urbanisation means that a substantial majority of the world’s population is now urban, while nearly three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions are now generated in towns and cities.
The fifth and sixth IPCC Assessment Reports have contained an individual chapter on cities, but this is the first special report to focus specifically on urban areas worldwide.
It is expected to be highly influential in shaping urban, national and international efforts to speed up interventions to reduce and mitigate emissions. It will also promote adaptive transformation in how cities are organised and how people live and work within them.
Professor Simon said: “It is a real honour to be one of three UK-based authors (two academics and one from the Met Office) on this global team; which is nationally and regionally far more diverse than in previous IPCC cycles.
“Judging by the very positive atmosphere during the Scoping Meeting in Riga, Latvia last March, the intense work will be made far more enjoyable by the keen sense of shared purpose to ensure that this one-off Special Report highlights the vital position and role of cities in tackling the climate change challenges.”
The work starts with the first lead authors’ meeting in Osaka, Japan in mid-March 2025 and it will be an intensive programme until late 2026.
Considerable effort has been made to diversify author teams in recent years to overcome criticism of previously heavy reliance on expertise from the Global North.
This rare opportunity to work at the highest level internationally is entirely consistent with Royal Holloway’s commitment as a University of Social Purpose. It will put its expertise at the service of wider society and will help raise the University’s international profile.
Professor Simon will be drawing on his longstanding experience on various dimensions of urban climate change research and advisory work on different continents, including recent UN-Habitat's World Cities Reports and preparatory work for a global arid cities network.
