After campaigning in the Alps: Will Van Ypersele become chair of the UN climate IPCC, or will it be a woman for the first time?

Our compatriot Jean-Pascal van Ypersele has campaigned extensively, including on Twitter (now X), and really wants the job. He participated once in 2015. Despite his experience as a former vice-chair of the IPCC, he saw Hoesung Lee of South Korea prevail.

Van Ypersele is affiliated with the University of Louvain-la-Neuve as a professor. He speaks French, but in addition to English he also speaks excellent Dutch. These will be his three priorities if elected:

• Inclusiveness. He wants to take out as many scientists as possible Developing countries, women scientists and young involving researchers in the following climate reports “because they best reflect the climate reality of every inhabitant of our little planet”.
• A lot louder voice of the IPCC in the climate debate, “so nobody can say that they did not know that the climate crisis was so urgent”. Science must therefore become more accessible, he says. He also wants to stay close to “normal” people.
• Focus on solutions, because there are, also in the South, underlines Van Ypersele. For him, solutions mean a positive message and a message of hope in the midst of often gloomy climate messages.

Outstanding: in his campaign video, Van Ypersele poses with a sign at the top of Mont Blanc, which he climbed in 2020. “I am ready to take the IPCC to new heights,” he said. It won’t be easy, because the competition is fierce.