Professor Myles Allen has been named among seven members of the University of Oxford who have been recognised for their outstanding achievements in the New Year's Honours list for 2022.
Professor Myles Allen, FInstP, Professor of Geosystem Science in the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment and Department of Physics, a Fellow of Linacre College, and Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative has been appointed CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and Net Zero.
A Director on several Oxford Martin Programmes, past and present, Professor Allen is a long-standing contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, most recently as a Coordinating Lead Author of the 2018 Special Report on 1.5°C, and initiated the climateprediction.net and weatherathome projects, using computing resources donated by the public to quantify uncertainty in climate predictions and the links between climate change and extreme weather.
Leading the Oxford Martin Programme on Climate Pollutants, Professor Allen developed a new way of calculating the warming impact of greenhouse gas emissions to accurately reflect the warming impact of different gases, and to help keep the world below 1.5C of warming. This metric has been adopted by the New Zealand government in setting its emissions targets and is discussed extensively in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.
Professor Allen was also key to the development of the Oxford Martin Principles for Climate Conscious Investment, a set of guidelines to align investments with a pathway to net zero emissions. The application of these principles has changed the investment strategies of several investment management firms, the Collegiate University of Oxford, and the business development strategies of two major fossil fuel companies.
"All climate research is a team endeavour, and this is particularly true of the net zero journey. The need for net zero carbon dioxide emissions to halt global warming was a scientific curiosity only a decade ago: now 90% of the world economy is pledged to achieve it within the next few decades," said Professor Allen.
"I’m honoured to have played my part, along with so many brilliant collaborators and students both here in Oxford and around the world. I’m especially pleased to be recognised, coincidentally, in the same year as my wife, Professor Irene Tracey, and to take this opportunity to thank all those who have helped us keep two academic careers going: family, colleagues and, most of all, Irene herself and our three children."
The Oxford Martin School extends its congratulations to Professor Allen, Professor Tracey and to all the other members of the University that have been recognised in the New Year's Honours list.