UCL-Energy seminar: 'Constraining the future: interpreting scenarios of the 21st century and beyond', Jason Lowe, Met Office

Climate model projections of how the future climate will evolve over the next century enable us to consider a range of “what if” questions about both the role of scientific uncertainties and societal choices on issues such as future emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols and their precursors. This seminar will consider recent simulations of the 21st century and the relative roles of climate system and socio-economic and technical constraints on determining the range of potential future pathways.  

New developments in climate science will also be discussed, along with the opportunities these present for better integrated assessment.

About the speaker:

Dr. Jason A. Lowe is Head of Mitigation Advice at the Met Office Hadley Centre and is a Met Office Science Fellow. His activities have included being chief scientist on the recently completed multidisciplinary AVOID programme, which enabled the UK to better understand and plan to avoid potentially dangerous climate changes. Additionally he played a major part in setting up and performing the global climate simulations that informed the carbon budgets in the UK Climate Change Act. Prior to this his focus was sea level and Dr. Lowe led the climate science component of the Thames Estuary 2100 project – which considered the need to upgrade the Thames Barrier - and was lead author of the UKCP09 Marine Report. His research interests include thresholds in the climate systems and calculation of the constraints on future climate pathways. Dr Lowe is a member of the IPCC task group on data and scenario support for impacts and climate analysis.