Belgian Jean-Pascal van Ypersele (66 - photo) will not chair the UN’s international panel on climate change (IPCC). Britain’s Jim Skea (69), Professor of renewable energy at Imperial College London clinched the top job. The decision came during a vote in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Britain’s Jim Skea to lead UN climate panel, Belgian Jean-Pascal van Ypersele fails to land top job
Colin Clapson
Published:
Skea prevailed over Brazil's Thelma Krug in the final vote. He won the run-off with 57 per cent of the vote against 43 per cent for Krug.
There were two men and two women candidates, with South African Debra Roberts in addition to Krug and Van Ypersele. For the first time - the IPCC was established in 1988 - a woman could have succeeded to the top job, but that did not happen.
Jim Skea (69) announced his victory on "X" (the former Twitter). He said he was "deeply honoured" by his election. Skea succeeds South Korea’s Hoesung Lee, who had been president since 2015. Skea can look forward to a term lasting until the end of the decade.
Belgium’s Van Ypersele had launched a major campaign to land the job. He is attached to the University of Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL) as a physicist and climatologist. Van Ypersele had personally travelled to many countries to explain his candidacy and was (is) also very active on X.
The Belgian could count on the support of several leading figures including Professor Michael Mann, a big name in climate science, but just like eight years ago, he did not make it.