Four researchers with VUB links contribute to the seventh IPCC report

This November the world will gather in Brazil for the UN Climate Summit COP 2025. The scientific foundation for those decisions traditionally comes from the six-yearly report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The next edition, the Seventh IPCC Assessment Report, will be published in 2028 and written by hundreds of international experts. Remarkably, four of the authors have ties to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). The Belgian VUB researchers are also the only contributors from Belgium, giving the university an exceptionally strong presence in the world’s most influential climate report.

The four VUB-linked authors of the Seventh IPCC Report:

• Prof.Harry Zekollari is a glaciologist with the VUB Water and Climate research group and a Lead Author of the first part of the report (The Physical Science Basis).
• Dr Chris Smith, a British climate researcher at the VUB and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, is Coordinating Lead Author of the same section.
• Prof. David De Vleesschouwer, VUB alumnus and PhD graduate, now Professor at the University of Münster, is Lead Author on climate systems in the distant past.
• Prof. Joeri Rogelj, VUB honorary doctor and Professor at Imperial College London, is a Lead Author of the seventh section of the report on mitigation. He previously co-authored the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (2018) and the Sixth IPCC Report.