ICEM 2025 – Opening Plenary Speaker

Date: Tuesday 03 June 2025
Time: 9:00 – 10:40
Place: Sala dei Giganti

Speaker Profile

Chris Hewitt joined the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 2022 as the Director of the Climate Services Branch, working with organisations around the world to build resilience to climate variability and climate change. Prior to joining WMO, Chris was Head of International Climate Services at the UK Met Office and Professor of Climate Science at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. Chris has collaborated worldwide to evolve the climate services landscape ensuring pull-through of science to services for societal benefit and guiding scientific developments to be aligned to societal needs. He has been central to developing the UN’s Global Framework for Climate Services, has led several European climate service projects, and has been co-chair of three WMO Expert Teams. He began his career as a climate researcher and climate model developer after he obtained his MSc and his PhD in meteorology from the University of Reading.

Topic: Climate information in support of climate action

The development, provision and use of climate data, information and knowledge (climate services) are essential for helping society meet today’s climate, and energy, challenges. The climate service landscape involves a wide-range of actors and interactions, cutting across scientific, technical and decision-making domains.

This talk will describe the climate service landscape, the actors, and the approaches globally, regionally and nationally, as society attempts to better manage the risks and opportunities arising from climate variability and climate change. While the focus of the conference is on the energy sector, many aspects of climate services are applicable to other sectors, and indeed actions in other sectors are also relevant to the energy sector.