Sponsored by China Meteorological Administration (CMA), Co-organized by Beijing Climate Centre (BCC), Yunnan University, and China Meteorological Administration Training Center, the Sixteenth International Seminar on Climate System and Climate Change (ISCS) will is being held from 15 to 26 July 2019 at Yunnan University, in Kunming, China. Five international climatologists and experts on related fields have been invited as teachers and lecturers. They are,

1．Jeffrey A. Hicke, from USA, Associate Professor at Department of Geography, University of Idaho, Coordinating Lead Author, Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II, mainly engaged in research of climate change impact and carbon cycle.

2．Anna Victoria Maidens, Senior Researcher in UK Met Office Hadley Centre, mainly engaged in research of global climate system and climate prediction.

3. Andrew Manning, Professor in UK University of East Anglia, mainly engaged in research of atmospheric chemistry.

4．Daithi Stone, Professor in National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) of New Zealand, Lead Author, Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II, mainly engaged in research of climate change detection and attribution.

5. Mikiko Kainuma, Professor in Institute for Global Environmental Strategies of Japan, Lead Author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth and Fifth Assessment Report, and Special Report on 1.5°C, mainly engaged in climate change policies and adaptation.

Dr. Qin Dahe, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, President of ISCS, Dr. Zhang Li, Vice President of Yunnan University, Ms. Chao Qingchen, Deputy Director-General of National Climate Center of China Meteorological Administration, and Dr. Gu Wanlong, Deputy Director-General of Yunnan Meteorological Service, attended the opening ceremony in Yunnan University.

During the opening ceremony, Dr. Qin indicated that climate change is attracting unprecedented attention from all over the world. The State of the Global Climate in 2018 issued by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) indicates that the global average surface temperature in 2018 is 0.38 °C above the 1981-2010 average, and about 1.0°C above pre-industrial levels, which is also one of the warmest years since the meteorological records began in 1850. The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report points out that climate change has already exerted an extensive impact on the Earth's natural ecosystems and human society. The greater we interfere with the climate in the future, the higher the risks will be. According to the 2019 Global Risk Report released by the World Economic Forum in Davos, environmental risks are the most prominent global ones among the 31 types of risks in five categories including global economic, environmental, geopolitical, social and technological risks, while extreme weather events, climate change mitigation and adaptation failures and natural disasters are the top three in the list. Therefore, the world should act positively and take effective measures to limit climate change, thus creating a more prosperous and sustainable future. China will unswervingly implement the national strategy of actively coping with climate change, and support the research and development and promotion of various low-carbon technologies. China will also make good use of the low-carbon development’s leading role in economic transformation, its acceleration function to the ecological civilization, and its synergies to environmental pollution control, making new contributions to the realization of a beautiful China and global action on climate change.

ISCS was initialed from 2004, aiming at widening views of young scientists, realizing international front on climate and climate change, improving the climate research ability, strengthening international academic exchanges. More than 80 internationally renowned professors have come to China to give lectures to more than 2,000 participants from domestic research institutes, universities and meteorological departments. Since 2007, we have also invited nearly 200 international participants from Asia and Africa to expand the seminar’s international impact. The Seminar on Climate System and Climate Change has become a platform for exchange of knowledge, technology and personnel in the field of climate change at home and abroad.