EXPERTS ADVISORY

ANN ARBOR—Scientists and government officials from around the world are meeting in Yokohama, Japan, this week to finalize a new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report about climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

Three University of Michigan researchers are lead authors and review editors of the IPCC’s new Working Group 2 climate report. They can discuss climate change impacts and adaptation in general terms now and can field specific questions about the report once its Summary for Policymakers is released on Sunday, March 30, at 8 p.m. ET (9 a.m. Tokyo time on Monday, March 31).

The U-M experts are:

Arun Agrawal is a professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. He is a lead author of the new IPCC report’s chapter on livelihoods and poverty. His expertise lies in the political economics of development, environmental governance, resource use and management, climate adaptation and institutional analysis. Agrawal is editor-in-chief of World Development, a multidisciplinary journal of development studies. He is coordinator of the International Forest Resources and Institutions Network, a two-decade-old, multi-country research effort on community-managed forests. He can be reached at (734) 647-5948 or at arunagra@umich.edu.

Rosina Bierbaum, a professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment and at the School of Public Health, is a review editor of the new report’s chapter on foundations and decision-making. She is an expert on environmental policy, sustainable development and climate change adaptation. The former SNRE dean serves on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and chairs the Science and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility. She is a lead convening author of the climate adaptation chapter in the latest U.S. National Climate Assessment. She can be reached at (734) 763-8675 or at rbierbau@umich.edu.

Maria Carmen Lemos is professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. She is a lead author of the chapter on climate-resilient pathways in the new IPCC report. Lemos is an expert on the human dimensions of climate change, especially the intersection between development and adaptation, and the role of science in building adaptive capacity to climate impacts. She is a co-founder of Icarus, the Initiative on Climate Adaptation Research and Understanding through the Social Sciences. Lemos served on the U.S. National Research Council’s Board on Environmental Change and Society and on NRC panels that produced the reports “Restructuring federal climate research to meet the challenges of climate change” and “America’s climate choices.” She can be reached at (734) 764-9315 and lemos@umich.edu.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: www.ipcc.ch