Professor, fellow of the Royal Society. Pierre Friedlingstein holds a Chair in Mathematical Modelling of the Climate System at the University of Exeter. He is also Research Director at the Laboratoire de Météorologie dynamique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France. He has over 30 years research experience in the field of global carbon cycle modelling, global biogeochemical cycles and global climate change, published >250 peer-reviewed articles, including >60 in high profile journals. He received several awards for his work, including the Vernadsky Medal of the European Geosciences Union and the Alexander von Humboldt Research award. He is an international leader in the understanding of the feedbacks between the carbon cycle and the climate system. He pioneered research on coupling between climate change and the carbon cycle, developing an original climate-carbon cycle feedback mathematical framework and coordinating the first modelling effort to quantify the climate and carbon cycle feedbacks (C4MIP). He is leading the Global Carbon Budget, an effort that provides reliable carbon cycle information to assist international climate policy. He is member of the Joint Science Comittee of the World Climate Research Programme and has been actively involved in climate assessment through participation in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR4 and AR5.