Kevin Anderson (scientist)


Kevin Anderson is Professor of Energy and Climate Change, holding a joint chair in the School of Engineering at the University of Manchester and in Centre for Sustainability and the Environment at Uppsala University. He recently finished a two year fellowship as the Zennstrøm Professor of Climate Change Leadership in Uppsala, and has previously been both Deputy Director and Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Anderson has a decades industrial experience, principally as an engineer in the petrochemical industry. He regularly provides advice on issues of climate change across different tiers of governance, from local and regional through to national and the European Commission.

Conferences and presentations

Prof. Anderson has been a contributor to many climate conferences, including the 4 Degrees and Beyond International Climate Conference in 2009. A video of his presentation is available online.

Publications

Publications are listed on his web page.
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."

News stories

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."
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, 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: