Suraje Dessai

Name:

Suraje Dessai 

Job title:

Professor of Climate Change Adaptation and SPF UK Climate Resilience Champion 

Area of work, and why it’s important:

The planet is already committed to a significant amount of climate change over the next few decades. Adaptation to the unavoidable impacts of climate change is imperative for the sustainable development of societies around the world. I use social science and climate science to tackle questions such as: how could local and regional climate evolve until the end of the century? How can we identify long-term adaptation strategies that are robust to uncertainty? How can we improve the science-policy interface to help society adapt to a changing climate? 

What will you be doing at COP26? 

IPCC AR6 WG1 outreach on the 8 November. SPF UK Climate Resilience outreach on the 10 November 

What are your hopes for the COP26 negotiations? 

Increased climate ambition and delivery of promised climate finance.

Anything else you want us to know? 

In a previous life, I worked for a Portuguese environmental think tank though whom I attended COP5, COP6, COP6bis, COP7 and COP8 (between 1999-2002). I haven’t been to a COP since!