Timothy R. Carter

Present role

I am Research Professor in Syke’s Climate Solutions Unit, Policies & Risks Group with some 45 years of research experience in the field of climate change impacts and adaptation. I was born in the United Kingdom and trained as a geographer at the Universities of London and Birmingham. After spells in the UK (University of Birmingham, 1980-1983 and 1987-1990) and Austria (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, 1983-1987), I moved to Finland in 1990 (Agricultural Research Centre of Finland and Finnish Meteorological Institute, 1990-1998), joining Syke in 1999.

My research has focused on climate change impacts and adaptation modelling, methods of assessment, including scenario development, and climate change adaptation. I co-ordinated multi-sector research on adaptation in Finland that formed a basis for Europe’s first national Adaptation Strategy in 2005, subsequently incorporated into Finland’s Climate Act. I was a Lead Author in each of the first five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports (1992-2014) as well as serving on the IPCC Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impacts and Climate Analysis (TGICA) during 1996-2019 (as Co-Chair 2011-2019).

Current research interests

My recent research has focused on adaptation to high-end climate change, model-based assessment of climate change impacts, adaptation options and risks, cross-border climate change impacts and responses, climate change and health and socioeconomic scenario development.

Research activities

2025-2027: IISOPPI - Innovative ideas for adapting to the changing climate in Northern Ostrobothnia (2025-2027) website under construction
Project leader: Nina Pirttioja 
Funding: European Commission (Euroopan aluekehitysrahasto – EAKR)

2024-2026: P4R - Pact4Resilience
Project leader: Kymenlaakson liitto
Funding: European Commission, HorizonEurope

2021-2024: Finnish scenarios for climate change research addressing policies, regions and integrated systems (FINSCAPES)
Funding: Academy of Finland Special funding for system-level research into climate change mitigation and adaptation

2020-2024: Climate change and Health: Adapting to Mental, Physical and Societal challenges (CHAMPS) 
Funding: Academy of Finland, Climate Change and Health Research Programme (CLIHE)

2020-2024: Adapting to climate change risks in Finland: an Impact Response surface STudy (Adapt-FIRST)
Funding: Academy of Finland

2019-2023: CAScading Climate risks: towards ADaptive and resilient European Societies (CASCADES, cascades.eu)
Funding: European Commission, Horizon 2020

International and national science-policy activities

I serve as a founding member of ICONICS (depts.washington.edu) (International committee on new integrated climate change assessment scenarios), established in 2012.
I contributed to the first European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA, climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu), and to the revised Finnish national climate change adaptation strategy, especially concerning scenario development (julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi).
I have served as a Domain Editor for the journal Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews of Climate Change (wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com) since its establishment in 2008 and a Review Editor for the journal Climate Research (int-res.com) since 1998.

Publications

I have published three books, around 140 peer-reviewed scientific contributions and some 140 non-refereed publications:
ORCID
Web of Science
Scopus
Google Scholar