Hugh is Professor of Atmospheric Composition at The University of Manchester and a visiting Professor at Fudan University. His research interests focus on quantifying processes responsible for air pollution and effects on regional climate. He has led and participated in numerous large international field studies to study amongst others air pollution in India and China, biomass burning, trans-boundary air pollution and studies of aerosol-cloud interactions. He has led a large number of studies to investigate pollution in the UK, including the recent UKRI OSCA (Integrated Research Observing System for Clean Air) project, part of the CleanAir Strategic Priorities Fund. He is a co-investigator of the £7M NERC Digital Solutions Hub. Hugh is the site lead for the Manchester component of the NERC National Centre for Atmospheric Sciences and is the Chair of the Scientific Community Advisory Group of the mid-life upgrade project to the UK atmospheric research aircraft. He has published over 350 peer review papers and has a h index of 85. In 2014 and 2018 he was named as one of the 100 Most Highly Cited Researchers in Geosciences and was the 2022 Recipient of the Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal from the European Geophysical Union. He is currently the vice-chair of the international Commission for Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution and a member of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry project Scientific Steering Committee.
Emissions from shipping greatly influence air quality close to port cities and in the region inshore waters in highly active shipping lanes. In addition, ships emit substantial particulate matter and have a profound effect on cloud properties in the background oceanic boundary layer. On 1st January 2020, the International Maritime Organisation globally regulated the sulphur content of ship fuel to be below 0.5%. Prior to this date, the sulphur content of the fuel used by shipping in international waters was typically 3.5%. This talk will present evidence from airborne field experiments to show the influence of these changes on the marine particle population and the effect this has had on clouds. The role this has played in influencing climate will be discussed. There is a rapidly growing interest in solar radiation management. Climate scientists agree that the primary focus for reducing global warming and the associated climate change is through rapid decarbonisation to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. However, current global pledges for abatement of carbon dioxide emissions mean that soon the planet will exceed the 1.5C above pre-industrial levels that was agreed in the legally binding Conference of Parties (COP21). These issues have led to so-called ‘Climate Intervention’ strategies such as Marine Cloud Brightening. This will be discussed and along with the lessons that can be learned from the changes in shipping emissions.
