Kevin Anderson | |
---|---|
Born | 28 June 1962 |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Scientist |
Kevin Anderson (born 28 June 1962) is a British climate scientist. Anderson has a decade of industrial experience, principally as an engineer in the petrochemical industry. He regularly provides advice on issues of climate change (with a focus on energy and mitigation) across different tiers of governance, from local and regional through to national and the European Commission. [1]
He is Professor of Energy and Climate Change, holding a joint chair in the School of Engineering at the University of Manchester (UK), the Centre for Sustainability and the Environment (CEMUS) at Uppsala University (Sweden) and the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET) at Bergen University (Norway). In 2016 he began a two year fellowship as the Zennström Professor of Climate Change Leadership in Uppsala, where he continues to work today, and has previously been both Deputy Director and Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. [2] [1] [3]
Prof. Anderson has been a contributor to many climate conferences, [4] including the 4 Degrees and Beyond International Climate Conference in 2009. [5] A video of his presentation is available online. [6]
In 2022, with a previous Tyndall Centre colleague Dr Dan Calverley, he established a new project Climate Uncensored, providing “robust, unflinching commentary and assessment of the scale of the climate challenge and our responses to it.” [7] Acknowledging “the inspiring and often courageous work of the climate science community .. when it comes to cutting emissions, there is a widespread failure to accept the true scale and urgency of the challenge. Such ‘mitigation denial’ is rife, even within the expert community.” Climate Uncensored focuses on cutting emissions, taking its lead from the Paris commitment to hold the global temperature rise to ‘well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C’. it is guided by the IPCC’s carbon budgets and strives to remain cognisant of issues of equity and fairness.
Publications are listed on his web page. [4]
In early 2011 a paper he co-authored with Alice Bows was published in a special issue of a Royal Society journal with other papers from the above conference. The Anderson and Bows "analysis suggests that despite high-level statements to the contrary, there is now little to no chance of maintaining the global mean surface temperature at or below 2°C. Moreover, the impacts associated with 2°C have been revised upwards, sufficiently so that 2°C now more appropriately represents the threshold between 'dangerous' and 'extremely dangerous' climate change." [8]
In a story in The Daily Telegraph of London preceding the 2010 COP 16 climate summit in Cancun, he said that politicians should consider a rationing system like the one introduced during the last "time of crisis" in the 1930s and 40s, meaning not necessarily a recession or a worse lifestyle but making adjustments in everyday life such as using public transport and wearing a sweater rather than turning on the heating. "Our emissions were a lot less ten years ago and we got by ok then." [9]
In a BBC story in November 2009 he clarified further:
A 2009 story in The Times of London, several months prior to the December 2009 Copenhagen climate summit (COP 15), reported:
Just before the 2009 Copenhagen summit, the Scotsman reported:
The Guardian reported in 2006 on Dr. Anderson's conclusions on reliance on energy efficiency versus nuclear power:
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In one paper Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the only way to reduce global emissions enough, while allowing the poor nations to continue to grow, is to halt economic growth in the rich world over the next twenty years. […] He said politicians should consider a rationing system similar to the one introduced during the last "time of crisis" in the 1930s and 40s.
Professor Anderson also suggests that we may need to see some form of carbon rationing like food rationing in wartime. "When you have something essential like energy that you can't ration just on price - you have to ration it in a more equitable way.
Two leading climate scientists have broken ranks with their peers to declare that hopes of getting a meaningful deal on halting global warming this year are already lost. Professor Kevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and Professor Trevor Davies, one of the centre's founders, told The Times that it was time to start looking for alternatives to an international deal.
Professor Kevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, believes only around 10 per cent of the planet's population – around half a billion people – will survive if global temperatures rise by 4C. […] Anderson, who advises the government on climate change, said the consequences were "terrifying".
New nuclear power stations would do little to combat climate change, according to a leading expert […] Kevin Anderson, a senior research fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said claims that nuclear power was the only way for Britain to meet demanding greenhouse gas targets were fundamentally wrong. He said: "That argument is way too simplistic. We can easily deal with climate change without nuclear power."