On 21 October 2013, the Volvo Environment Prize Foundation announced that Dr. Qin Dahe, Co-Chair, IPCC Working Group I, has been awarded the 2013 Volvo Environment Prize.
As indicated in the prize citation, “Throughout his very distinguished career, Dr Qin Dahe has made outstanding contributions to the scientific understanding of the climate, both in his own country of China and at the global level. He has generated an exceptional body of research on the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets, an important component of the climate system. (…) Building on this impressive scientific base, Dr Qin has played a leading role the pre- eminent assessment body for climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He first became involved in the IPCC with its Third Assessment Report, published in 2001, and then assumed the prestigious leadership role of co- Chair of Working Group 1 (Science) of the Fourth Assessment Report, released in 2007. He has continued in this role in the Fifth Assessment Report, due to be released in October 2013. (…) One of Dr Qin’s most important contributions to climate policy was his leadership role in the IPCC’s Special Report on Climatic Extremes, published in 2012.” He is the first Chinese laureate.
The Volvo Environment Prize is awarded for “Outstanding innovations or scientific discoveries which in broad terms fall within the environmental field”, and is awarded by an independent foundation, which was instituted in 1988. Over the last two decades the Volvo Environment Prize has become one of the scientific world’s most respected environmental prizes. Since the first award in 1990, the prize has gone to 40 people. Laureates represent all fields of environmental and sustainability studies and initiatives. Among them are many well-known names and three Nobel Prize winners.
http://www.environment-prize.com/content/view/87/142/
Press release from the Volvo Environment Prize Foundation (Oct 21, 2013).