Claire joined Climate Analytics in 2016 and is now the Co-Head of the Climate Policy Team and leads the Mitigation and Modelled Pathways analysis group. Her work includes assessing NDC ambition and working with modelled pathways that are consistent with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C warming limit. She has contributed to Climate Action Tracker and 1.5°C National Pathways Explorer, focusing in particular on net zero targets, the role of carbon dioxide removal and mitigation options in the land sector. She has also published peer-reviewed literature on these topics.

Throughout her time at Climate Analytics, Claire’s work has bridged the Climate Policy, Science and Climate Diplomacy teams, including by providing scientific support to Small Island Developing States during negotiations under the IPCC and UNFCCC.

Before joining Climate Analytics, Claire worked for the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in the PRIMAP Emissions Team, where her work centred on analysing the mitigation components of the INDCs, with particular focus on the land-use sector. She has also worked as a policy analyst in a sustainability consultancy in London (the Carbon Trust), mainly focusing on renewable energy.

She holds an MSci in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, with a specialty in geological sciences, and an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford. Before joining PIK, she also did a traineeship in the European Commission, working in the energy and environment unit of the Secretariat General.

New pathways to 1.5°C: interpreting the IPCC’s Working Group III scenarios in the context of the Paris Agreement

In total, the IPCC's Working Group III report assessed 97 pathways that limit warming to 1.5°C, adding to our understanding of the options and conditions for achieving the necessary emissions reductions. We take a closer look at how 1.5°C compatible pathways are defined in the IPCC AR6 report and why this matters.

Who should be responsible for removing CO2 from the atmosphere?

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) – also known as “negative emissions” – is needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. This means that solutions – whether natural or technological – and governance mechanisms will need to be ready for scale-up in the next couple of decades. But who should bear the responsibility for developing and deploying CDR?

Understanding the complex relationship between land and climate

Land-based solutions can help mitigate and adapt to climate change, but some could make it more difficult to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Scientists from our LAMACLIMA project explain what this means and how the project can improve our knowledge and implementation of land-based solutions.

(K)eine gemeinsame Zukunft? Verschleppter Klimaschutz und intergenerationale Gerechtigkeit

Schülerinnen und Schüler auf der ganzen Welt gehen dieser Tage mit einem klaren Ziel auf die Straße: sie fordern stringenten Klimaschutz zur Einhaltung des 1.5°C Ziels des Pariser Abkommens ein. Denn sie werden die sich verschärfenden Klimafolgen von morgen wie zum Beispiel Hitzewellen, Dürren, Fluten und steigender Meeresspiegel noch erleben. Vor allem aber beraubt die Verschleppung des Klimaschutzes von heute sie zunehmend ihrer Chance, das Klimaproblem noch erfolgreich bewältigen zu können.

Centred on science – how the IPCC can guide mitigation action

The IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C contains the best available science to guide the development of Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS), which are due to be submitted in 2020 under the Paris Agreement. One essential function of LT-LEDS is to provide a long-term 1.5°C consistent trajectory as an essential guide for increasing the level of mitigation ambition in the updating of NDCs, also due in 2020. Coupling the process of developing full LT-LEDS and submitting these by 2020 will make the process of further ramping up NDCs more coherent in the years to come.

Livin' in the future - delaying climate action and intergenerational justice

School kids around the world are taking to the streets demanding that the older generation step up efforts to tackle climate change, which they see as a major threat to their future. The teenagers of today will still be alive to bear the climate impacts of tomorrow - like sinking coastlines and cities, droughts, floods, crop failures - and will have an ever shrinking range of options to deal with the legacy of inaction on cutting carbon emissions.
(Also available in German)

About us

Decarbonisation targets and 1.5℃ pathways

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Claire Fyson

Publications

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8 things to know about the state of climate action today

G20 renewables target is no substitute for a clear fossil fuel phase out

G7 moving faster on climate since last Summit, but behind schedule on ending coal and gas

South Korea’s gas problem

Peak emissions before 2025: key messages from the IPCC’s Synthesis Report