Exeter research in Carbon Brief’s top media papers of 2022

Papers on tipping points (2^nd), catastrophic climate change (6^th), the Amazon rainforest (10^th) and the annual Global Carbon Budget (11^th) all appear in the list.

The rankings come from Altmetric scores, which are based on factors including news coverage and social media mentions.

Each of the articles received extensive media coverage, reaching many millions of people worldwide.

“The University of Exeter is providing global leadership on the environment and climate crisis in this crucial decade for our planet,” said Mike Shore-Nye, the University’s Registrar and Secretary.

“Through strong partnerships and collaborations, we are identifying the threats we face and finding solutions.

“We now have more than 1,400 researchers working on the environment and climate, and we’re delighted to see Exeter academics featured in Carbon Brief’s list of the most talked-about climate papers of 2022.”

The papers on the Carbon Brief list with Exeter-affiliated authors (names in brackets) were:

• Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points (Dr David Armstrong McKay, Dr Jesse Abrams, Professor Tim Lenton).
• Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios (Professor Tim Lenton).
• Pronounced loss of Amazon rainforest resilience since the early 2000s (Dr Chris Boulton, Professor Tim Lenton, Professor Niklas Boers).
• Global Carbon Budget 2022 (Professor Pierre Friedlingstein, Dr Michael O’Sullivan, Professor Stephen Sitch, Thais Rosan, Dr Jamie Shutler).

Professor Lenton, Director of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute, said: “There has been huge interest in our research on climate tipping points during 2022, and I am over the moon to have three papers in the top 10.”