Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele (UCLouvain, Former Vice Chair IPCC) will deliver the lecture on “The Climate Change and Global Politics” on Saturday February 21st, 2026 from 2 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele is a Belgian academic climatologist. He is a professor of Environmental Sciences at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain). He is specialized in modelling climate and the climate effects of human activities, and has recently focused his research on climate change at the regional scale (modelling and impacts) and on integrated assessment of climate change.He chairs the Energy & Climate Working Group of the Belgian Federal Council for Sustainable Development. In 2008, Jean-Pascal van Ypersele has been elected Vice-chair of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared with Al Gore the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize), after participating in its work since 1995. In that capacity, he led a reflection group on the future of IPCC, which proposed a number of reforms that were adopted by the IPCC Plenary in 2009. In 2009, he was elected a Member of the Belgian Royal Academy. He has participated to a number of United Nations conferences on climate issues as scientific advisor and was instrumental in creating in 2002 the UN work programme on climate communication and education. Among other prizes, he received in 2006 the « Energy and environment award » from the International Polar Foundation, the “Francqui Chair” from the Université libre de Bruxelles in 2007-2008, and was made Honorary Member of the Club of Rome EU Chapter in 2010. In 2011, he received the « Francqui Chair » form HUBrussel, co-organized the first Stephen Schneider Symposium, was made honorary citizen of the city of Dinant (Belgium), and received the highest distinction awarded by the Government of the Walloon Region: “Commandeur du Mérite wallon”. Recent publications : “Meeting report of the IPCC Expert Meeting on Communication”. Geneva: World Meteorological Organization, IPCC, 2016, “Comparison of one-moment and two-moment bulk microphysics for high-resolution climate simulations of intense precipitation” : Atmos. Research, 2014, “Une vie au cœur des turbulences climatiques” [in French], Bruxelles, De Boeck supérieur, 2015. [read more]