The impacts of climate change are already evident both in the UK and worldwide, through changes in extreme weather, diminishing snow and ice and rising sea levels. The Paris Agreement in December 2015 marked a turning point in climate negotiations with 195 governments agreeing to take global action to tackle climate change. As a result, the focus of climate science research at the Met Office has changed to reflect these changing drivers: moving from proving that climate change is happening to understanding the nature of the change. Robust, impartial and targeted climate science is needed to manage the risks of climate change, including developing strategies for lowering greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for the changes to our climate which are unavoidable.
	Professor Stephen Belcher is the Met Office Chief Scientist in the UK and provides leadership of the Met Office Science Programme; a team of more than 500 research scientists which has earned a world-wide reputation for excellence in weather and climate science and the translation of this science into weather and climate services. He represents the Met Office on science and research technology to UK Government, guiding the position of Met Office science in the wider UK environmental science landscape. Stephen obtained his PhD in fluid dynamics from the University of Cambridge in 1990 and has subsequently published over 100 peer-reviewed papers on the fluid dynamics of atmospheric and oceanic turbulence. Having completed his PhD he became a research fellow at Stanford and Cambridge Universities. In 1994 he moved to the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, where he served as Head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences between 2007 and 2010. In 2012 he joined the Met Office as Director of the Met Office Hadley Centre before becoming Chief Scientist in 2016.	Introduction, Mark Bowick