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BAMOS November 2025
President’ s report
Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick
Hi everyone, I wanted to share some exciting updates and achievements from our community. First up, a reminder to mark your calendars— our Annual Conference is coming up in Hobart from 16 to 20 February 2026. The conference committee has been working tirelessly to put together a fantastic program, with some really engaging plenaries in the pipeline. I’ m sure it’ s going to be a great event, so I encourage you all to start planning your travels if you haven’ t already!
I’ d like to take a moment to warmly congratulate Dr Stuart Minchin on his new role as the Director of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, starting November 10th. Dr Minchin brings a wealth of experience, having previously served as the Director General of the Pacific Community( SPC) and the Chief of the Environmental Geoscience Division at Geoscience Australia. His background in environmental research and data science, and his commitment to improving climate resilience and disaster recovery, will be invaluable as he takes on this important position. We’ re excited to see how he will shape the Bureau’ s future and continue its vital work in weather, climate, and water monitoring, research, and services.
In other news, nominations for Fellows of the Society have just closed. I hope many of you took the chance to nominate your colleagues who you believe fit the criteria. I’ m looking forward to seeing who will be recognised this year. The 2025 awardees will be announced on December 1st, and I’ m personally excited to congratulate them in Hobart.
On the political front, we’ ve been active in advocacy. I recently wrote on behalf of AMOS to the Hon. Chris Bowen, Australia’ s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, and urged him to aim for a 75 % reduction in emissions below 2005 levels by 2035, as recommended by the Climate Change Authority.
Unfortunately, the government announced a target of 62 – 70 %. This means we will fall short of contributing our fair share in emissions reductions that will give the planet a reasonable chance of keeping global warming within 1.5 ° C.
Additionally, I sent a letter to Ms Laura Grimm, who heads the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration( NOAA), strongly urging reconsideration of the drastic cuts to weather and climate monitoring and research. While I don’ t expect our letter alone to change U. S. climate policy, I know our friends at the American Meteorological Society really appreciated the support.
And here’ s some fantastic news to celebrate: over 30 Australiabased authors have been named as Lead or Coordinating Lead Authors for the upcoming IPCC Seventh Assessment Report. This includes five Australia-based authors involved in the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities, which is currently in development.
The list of authors includes members of the AMOS community and colleagues across related fields, spanning all three working groups. Turn to page 11 of this issue to see the full list of authors and read some words from a few of them. Please take a moment to congratulate any authors you see— it’ s a remarkable achievement to be involved in shaping the world’ s most important climate report!
Thank you for all your ongoing support and involvement in AMOS. It’ s an exciting time for our community, and I look forward to interacting with you all soon!