Dr. Laura Gallardo, researcher at the Center for Climate and Resilience Researcher CR2, was elected as vice-chair of the Working Group II for the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a position that makes her part of the new board of the scientific advisory body of the United Nations.
Her election means that for the first time, Chile will be represented at the IPCC bureau, comprised of the chair and vice-chairs of the IPCC, the co-chairs, and vice-chairs of each of the three Working Groups, and the co-chairs of the Task Force Bureau.
About her appointment, Dr. Gallardo thanked the opportunity and pondered on the challenge that this position means: “It’s an honor to represent Chile, which for the first time will be part of the governing body of the IPCC. And it’s also a challenge for me to work for a better representation of the Chilean and Latin America science in the fields of adaptation and resilience to climate change, always in agreement with the better understanding of the underlying physical and social phenomena”, she explained.
The IPCC Working Group II assesses the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change, the negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it. “Climate Change 2022: impacts, adaptation and Vulnerability” is the most recent contribution of the Group, published in February 2022 alerting that climate change affects all corners of the world and that it is necessary to halve greenhouse gas emissions during this decade and immediately increase adaptation efforts to avoid further impacts.
Dr. Gallardo is a Ph.D. in Chemical Meteorology from Stockholm University. She’s a full-time professor at the Department of Geophysics of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile. Currently, she’s the Director of Postgraduate and Graduate Studies at the University of Chile and a researcher at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research CR2, of which she was its first director.
Dr. Gallardo was an expert adviser at the National Environmental Commission (CONAMA) between 1997 and 2001, conducting the first modeling studies on a regional scale with an emphasis on the dispersion of oxidized sulfur from copper smelters. Her lines of research are atmospheric modeling and data assimilation, air quality in megacities, and short-lived pollutants.
As part of the IPCC, she was a lead author of the report of Working Group I on the Physical Basis of Climate Change for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).
