Awarded by the Royal Meteorological Society for Impact on Science, Policy or Society, 2024
Citation:
Professor Dann Mitchell and the health research team at Bristol Climate Change Group have created significant and lasting impact across the public, academic and policy domains, sustained over a number of years. This has led directly to improved information for policy makers and planners.
The impact is based on a strong foundation of pioneering climate science. For instance, Dann was a major driving force in setting up and establishing the HAPPI project, which provided new evidence on the benefits of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, compared to 2C. More recently, his focus on health has helped us better understand the link between weather and climate hazards and mortality (e.g. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00175-X), filling an important evidence gap. Both examples combined excellent science, with open collaboration and clear and authoritative communication.
Working with the Met Office, as the University of Bristol Joint Chair for the Met Office Academic Partnership, Dann has helped to galvanise the research community around key gaps in research, providing a focal point for discussion on climate and health and informing the Met Office weather-climate-health strategy.
Dann’s work is creating impact by feeding directly into policy and planning. For instance, he is currently one of the lead authors for the health chapter for the technical report of the independent assessment for the fourth UK Climate Change Risk Assessment. Working with risk-owners across government he has already helped to produce updated descriptors of health risks and is now working with his co-lead and team of authors to quantify the levels of risk. This will ultimately form an important ingredient to improved national adaptation planning for climate driven health risks.
Finally, Dann provides a highly valued and useful community service as one of the instigators and ongoing organisers of the climate impacts national meetings. These have provided a great opportunity to learn about new research and network with colleagues across a range of disciplines, often amplifying the reach and impact of the research findings for colleagues at all stages of their career development.