‘Science has been vital for informing a wide range of actions to address climate change drives and impacts. Biophysical scientists uncovered the potentially existential risks of human-caused climate change and ozone depletion. The synthesis and assessment of all their work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in particular has arguably contributed to shifting the global energy and sustainability trajectory very significantly, despite what many in the media would have us believe. In my opinion, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process has bought the world a decade or more to transition away from predominant fossil fuel dependence,’ says Prof Guy Midgley.
Prof Midgley is prominent in his field of global change and biodiversity science – not only locally, but internationally. His work dates back to the 1980s, including a 31-year career at the South African National Biodiversity Institute. As Professor at Stellenbosch University’s Department of Botany & Zoology, he currently works in a wide variety of southern African ecosystems, and also leads efforts by Stellenbosch University’s School for Climate Studies and Centre for Invasion Biology to build multidisciplinary approaches to teaching, researching and communicating climate change risk.
A-rated by the National Research Foundation in Earth Sciences, and previously A-rated in Plant Sciences, Prof Midgley is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, a Humboldt Research awardee and the RSSA Marloth Medal recipient for lifetime scientific contributions. He has been rated amongst the most influential scientists in climate change (Thomson Reuters 2022), and highly cited (Thomson-Reuters 2014). He currently serves as trustee and was previously President and Vice-President of the US-based JRS Biodiversity Foundation, leveraging a USD50 million endowment supporting the development of African biodiversity informatics.
Prof Midgley served as co-ordinating lead author (CLA) for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th IPCC assessments (1999 to 2022), and CLA for the IPBES Global and Land Reports, the combined IPBES/IPCC risk assessment. He also co-chaired the CBD Climate Change and Biodiversity ad hoc Technical Expert Group Report ‘Connecting Biodiversity and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation’ (2009) with Sir Bob Watson (UK-DEFRA). As CLA of the IPCC he is a co-awardee of the Nobel Peace Prize (2007). His many awards also include Eco-Logic and NSTF awards (2022).
He says working in the field of climate change is interesting and exciting ‘in the sense that one is working on an issue of great historical importance, involving complex science and social issues, attended by ongoing hard negotiations and with direct relevance to human quality of life for decades to come. The responsibility is somewhat daunting, but as scientists we also must take care not to diminish the resolve of the next generation to ensure a human-habitable planet.’
Top current issues
Which topics does Prof Midgley view as the most important ‘hot’ issues in terms of climate change and biodiversity science? He says at the global level they are (in no particular order) ‘What is the realistic likelihood of an exceedance of Paris Agreement temperature target range of 1.5° to 2°C warming?’ ‘What is the moral hazard in considering exceeding, or overshooting, this range?’ ‘What is the adaptive capacity of the human social-ecological-economic system to possible overshoot?’ and finally, ‘What is the realistic technological and natural capacity for removing CO2 from the atmosphere soon enough to reduce the likelihood of overshoot?’
At the regional to local levels, Prof Midgley believes the hottest questions relate to ‘adaptation potential, adaptation costs, the potential for implementing adaptation solutions at scale, and adaption limits. “Just Transition” considerations are a vital hot button issue across the board, both as a potential stimulus and a source of friction to action and implementation.’
Science journey – and the School for Climate Studies
Prof Midgley says his love of the environment stems from school holiday visits to the farm Melkamer near the De Hoop Nature Reserve in the southern Cape. There, he learned about the veld from his uncle, Mick D’Alton, and farm manager Mike Swart. As student at Stellenbosch University (SU), a passion for plant physiology was sparked by Prof JA de Bruyn, then dean of SU’s Faculty of Science, a wonderful and gentle communicator and mentor. After graduating, he joined the Botanical Research Institute (BRI) in Cape Town, where a plant physiology group was led by fellow SU alumnus and ecologist Mike Rutherford—a visionary thinker who further inspired Midgley’s interest in the potential of plants to help scientists understand environmental patterns, trends, and broader ecological systems. The BRI later (2004) evolved into the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) headed by Prof Brian Huntley – an extraordinary science leader whose work with the Foundation for Research Development (FRD) catapulted South African ecological science into a global standout. ‘The FRD produced incredible reports on biomes that did a lot of the foundational work on understanding South African ecology, which was and remains world leading.’
Prof Midgley’s scope of work at SANBI expanded rapidly beyond ecology and agriculture to broader sustainability issues and mainstreaming biodiversity into solutions promoting environmental resilience. He also undertook the work for the IPCC and the UNFCCC, and national assessments during this time – building the SANBI Global Change Research Group from the early 2000s to 2014, when he decided to switch to a more academic role and joined Stellenbosch as professor. From 2021 he was tasked with initiating and leading the University’s School for Climate Studies.
Aims of the school
On the aims of the school, he comments: ‘We highlight environmental responsibility and interdisciplinarity. We work across a number of different institutions to build collaborative research programmes and different approaches to understanding our relationship with and impacts on climate – the causes, the impacts and the solutions.’ He also comments on the ups and downs of interdisciplinary scientific collaboration: ‘It’s fun; it can be hard; it helps to work with people with a sense of humour and creativity; it helps to abandon ideology and ego.’
The school produces ‘new work in the areas of climate change hydrology, biodiversity and agriscience. We also have a programme on planetary health and climate risks, and we are developing a programme on carbon dioxide removal from the Southern Ocean and Southern African terrestrial surface. In conjunction with SU’s School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, we look at optimising the use of big data for climate research, with a strong initial focus on agritech.’
Broader initiatives have included engagement with the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC) to train 150 Global Youth Ambassadors from SU’s partner universities to contribute to a Climate Youth Week prior to the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27). The school also hosted an African Regional Forum on Climate Change at Stellenbosch, with 45 African universities being represented.
What advice does this prominent leader in his field have for young researchers who may consider science as a career? ‘A career in science is not for the faint of heart, and it’s not a route to personal wealth, but there are many opportunities to carve a good and meaningful career and a life of more than a little interest. The euphoria of a new discovery or perspective is a uniquely human privilege. Studying our place in the world as a quirky, extraordinary and sometimes vexatious species, considering our impacts and prospects for survival, and seeking some personal meaning, is both challenging and rewarding. Looking back, I count myself very lucky on the whole, despite some hard knocks and setbacks,’ says Prof Midgley.