Gustaf Hugelius, Deputy Director of the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, which has been hosted by the Department of Environmental Science since January 1st 2022, is attending the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in hopes of reaching out to companies, civil servants, and organizations with important scientific findings.
The COP27 climate summit is underway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt and will conclude on 18 November. The parties will follow up on previous agreements and negotiate how the climate work will be carried out. Gustaf Hugelius, who is Associate Professor at the Department of Natural Geography, is one of the researchers from Stockholm University attending COP27.
Expert on the Arctic and thawing permafrost
Hugelius’s reason for attending COP27 is to present research findings on how human emissions are causing irreversible damage to the frozen parts of the Earth’s climate system, the so-called cryosphere.
“My own expertise is in permafrost. Thawing permafrost causes additional emissions of greenhouse gases which, within a few decades, will be greater than the entire EU’s combined emissions,” says Gustaf Hugelius.
Gustaf Hugelius will present his research on how climate change affects the Arctic, permafrost and wetlands at the Cryosphere Pavilion. The Bolin Center for Climate Research is one of the co-organizers of this pavilion. The purpose of the Cryosphere Pavilion is to serve as a focal point for research, communication and conversation about the cryosphere (sea ice, glaciers, snow and permafrost). Hugelius is also planning to listen to the negotiations that are open to participating researchers.
What are your hopes for the outcome of COP27?
“Overall, I hope that more countries will announce, and argue for, more ambitious emission reductions (so-called nationally determined contributions). There will be important negotiations regarding “loss and damage”, i.e. how developed countries with a large emissions debt should take financial and moral responsibility for the damage caused by climate change. Other important questions concern how the use of coal as an energy source can be rapidly reduced and a potential common global market for emission rights. For us at the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, I hope that we can reach out with our important research results to decision-makers, officials and organisations,” says Hugelius
