RIT to host chief climate scientist Monday

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David Reidmiller, who will speak at RIT on March 14, advises the international climate negotiating team and senior officials in the State Department on scientific and technical issues related to climate change.

Rochester Institute of Technology is hosting a lecture next week by a chief climate scientist and lead climate technology negotiator with the U.S. Department of State who will discuss the climate change talks in Paris, including the policy decisions that were made and why.

David Reidmiller advises the international climate negotiating team and senior officials in the State Department on scientific and technical issues related to climate change. He will visit RIT to deliver a presentation at 1 p.m. Monday, March 14, in Louise Slaughter Hall (rooms 2220-2240) on the Henrietta campus. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Reidmiller has worked on a wide array of climate issues, including energy tax incentives, geoengineering, nuclear safety and clean energy innovation.

After weeks of intense negotiations and several years of preparation, the world’s nations reached what many consider to be a landmark agreement on climate change on Dec. 13, 2015. The development of the Paris agreement was a historic moment that broke down the barriers between developed and developing countries to bring over 20 years of climate diplomacy to fruition.

The agreement witnessed 195 countries come together in the wake of terrorist attacks to agree that climate change poses an urgent threat to humanity. It lays out a framework to hold the average global temperature increase to below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit—the threshold at which major climate-related catastrophes like mass extinction and significant sea level rise are likely to occur.

In all, 187 countries already have set targets and outlined mitigation strategies. Per the terms of the agreement, these will be updated every five years reflecting progress over the previous targets. The policies to be enacted are expected to have significant impacts on the United States and throughout the world.

Reidmiller’s presentation will discuss the predicted climate policy changes to come and the remarkable challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Prior to joining the State Department, Reidmiller was a Christine Mirzayan Fellow with the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate and Polar Research Board at the National Academy of Sciences. With the Academies, he assisted with the development of the America’s Climate Choices suite of reports.

Reidmiller earned his MS and Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington, where he investigated the role of trans-Pacific transport of air pollution and its impact on air quality in the United States. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Colgate University.

Reidmiller’s one-hour presentation is sponsored by RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability.