Hoesung Lee elected as Chairman of IPCC

October 8, 2015

Hoesung Lee of South Korea has been elected Chairman of Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
He was elected in on-going 42nd session IPCC in Dubrovnik, Croatia by 78 votes to 56 in a run-off election with Jean-Pascale van Ypersele from Belgium.
Lee succeeds environmentalist R.K. Pachauri of India who had resigned following the sexual abuse scandal in which he was allegedly involved.

About Hoesung Lee

Presently, he professor in the economics of climate change, energy and sustainable development.
Previously he had served as one of the Vice-Chairs of the IPCC. He has been associated with IPCC in various capacities including as Co-Chair of Working Group III for Second Assessment Report of 1992.
He is also the founding president of the Korea Energy Economic Institute. He also has served as President of International Association for Energy Economics.
He had also had served on various boards including as a member of the ADB President’s advisory board, executive member of the Korean Academy of Environmental Sciences etc.

About Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPCC is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change.
Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
Established: in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Members: Open to all member countries of UN and WMO. Currently 195 countries are its members.
It comprises a group of several hundred scientists of different nationality who assess climate change science.
Functions: IPCC neither monitors climate related parameters or data nor does it conduct any research work. It merely assesses the most recent scientific, socio-economic and technical information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change.
Every 5 or 6 years, IPCC comes out with comprehensive periodic reports on Climate Change called Assessment Reports (AR).
Awards: IPCC’s 4th AR had helped them to win Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. During this time R.K. Pachauri was its Chairman.