Richard Betts is a Professor of Climate Science at the University of Exeter, and Head of Climate Impacts Research at the Met Office Hadley Centre, which is recognised as the world’s leading climate research centre. He develops and uses computer simulations of the global climate system to improve our understanding how the atmosphere, oceans, and ecosystems combine through the carbon cycle and water cycle, and how these are changing as a result of natural processes and human influences.

Richard has written or co-authored over 100 scientific papers, and contributed to several major reports to the United Nations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He leads a large EU-funded international research programme, “HELIX” (High-End cLimate Impacts and eXtremes), involving scientists from across Europe, Africa and South Asia, assessing the potential consequences of global warming exceeding 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

Talk: Overheating the Pale Blue Dot: how much climate change can we take?