Prof. Pius Yanda Elected as the Member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Bureau in the position of the Vice-Chair of the Working Group II at the 42nd Session of the IPCC held in Dubrovnik, Croatia from 5th to 8th October 2015.

   Prof. Pius Yanda, Vice-Chair of the IPCC Working Group II 

Tanzania delegation to the IPCC-42 Session with the newly elected IPCC Chair, Prof. Hoesung Lee (Second from left) from Korea.

Tanzania Delegation to the IPCC 42 Session (Center; Dr. Agnes Kijazi, Director General of the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) and Permanent Representative of Tanzania with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO); to her left; Dr. Ladislaus Chang’a, Director of Research and Applied Meteorology in TMA and IPCC Focal Point; to her right Mr. Wilbert Timiza, Manager International Affairs, TMA.

Prof. Pius Yanda have been elected as one of the Vice Chairs of the Working Group II of the IPCC and therefore become among the 34 members of the IPCC Bureau. This is a very important position and very big success for the United Republic of Tanzania to be represented in the IPCC Bureau. 

Prof. Pius Yanda, has served in the IPCC community as the Lead Author in the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) and also the Lead Author in the Special Report on Extreme Events. He has also served as member in the Joint Steering Committee of the World Climate Research Programme. He also co-authored several papers and books. He is the Lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, and currently the Director of the Centre for Climate Change Studies, and the Director of the Institute of the Resource Assessment (IRA) at the University of Dar es Salaam. 

Speaking on this historical achievement, Dr. Agnes Kijazi, the Director General of Tanzania Meteorological Agency and the Head of Tanzania delegation thanked the Multilateral Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Hon. Modest Jonathan Mero the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Permanent Mission of Tanzania to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland for the great and hard work in undertaking a diplomatic consultation with other countries in the world to solicit support for the Tanzanian candidates.

She also congratulated and thanked the Tanzanian delegation for working tirelessly to ensure that Tanzania gets one of the top positions in the IPCC Bureau, and congratulated Prof. Pius Yanda for this historical achievement.

IPCC in Brief

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. In the same year, the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. 
 
The IPCC is a scientific body under the auspices of the United Nations (UN). It reviews and assesses the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change. It does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate related data or parameters. 
 

The IPCC Bureau consists of 34 members, which include the Chair of the IPCC, Three Vice Chairs, Two Co-Chairs of the Task Force Bureau, Two Co-Chairs of each of the three Working Groups, Seven Vice-Chairs of the Working Group I, Eight Vice-Chairs of the Working Group II and Seven Vice-Chairs of the Working Group III.  The full list of the IPCC Bureau is as follows: IPCC – Chair; Hoesung Lee (Republic of Korea), IPCC- Vice-Chairs; Ko Barrett (USA), Thelma Krug (Brazil) and Youba Sokona (Mali); Co-Chairs – Working Group I; Valérie Masson-Delmotte (France), Panmao Zhai (China); Co-Chairs – Working Group II; Hans-Otto Pörtner (Germany), Debra Roberts (South Africa); Co-Chairs – Working Group III; Jim Skea (United Kingdom), P.R. Shukla (India); Co-Chairs – Task Force Bureau; Kiyoto Tanabe (Japan), Eduardo Calvo (Peru); Working Group I – Vice Chairs; Noureddine Yassaa (ALGERIA (Region I)) Fatima Drioech (Morocco (Region I)), Muhammad Tariq          (Pakistan (Region II), Carolina Vera, (Argentina (Region III), Gregory Flato (Canada (Region IV), Edvin Aldrian (Indonesia (Region V), Jan Fuglestvedt (Norway (Region VI). Working Group II – Vice Chairs; Pius Yanda (United Republic of Tanzania (Region I), Taha Zatari (Saudia Arabia (Region II), Carlos Mendes (Venezuela), Joy Jacqueline (Malaysia (Region V), Mark Howden (Australia (Region V), Sergey Semenov (Russia (Region VI), Andreas Fischlin (Switzerland (Region VI), Roberto Sanches (Mexico (Region III). Working Group III– Vice Chairs; Nagmeldin Mahmoud (Sudan), Diriba Korecha Dadi (Ethiopia); Amjad Abdulla (Maldives), Ramon Pich Madruga (Cuba) Andy Reisinger (New Zealand), Diana Urge-Vorsatz (Hungary), Carlo Carraro (Italy).

Issued by: Monica Mutoni; TMA Public Relations Officer.