James is a Chair in Climate Change Adaptation at the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds. His research takes place at the interface between climate and society, and he is particularly interested in climate change vulnerability and adaptation. He leads a diversity of initiatives in this area, including projects focusing on Indigenous peoples and climate change (with a major focus on the Arctic), and examining ways to create ‘usable’ science. Resource management, natural hazards, and health, are overarching topics within these themes. He is also developing novel approaches to tracking climate change adaptation at global and regional levels (including using big data), developing systematic review approaches in an environmental change context, and he is involved in adaptation monitoring and evaluation debates. He is editor-in-chief at the journal Regional Environmental Change, has been a lead author on national and international climate assessments including the IPCCs SR on 1.5C of warming, and has published >160 peer reviewed articles including in Nature Climate Change, PNAS, Global Environmental Change, and Canadian Medical Association Journal. Go to www.jamesford.ca for more information.

Qualifications
PhD Geography (2006). University of Guelph, Canada.

MSc Environmental Change and Management (2001). Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford.

BA Geography (2000). University of Oxford.

Research Interests
Climate change vulnerability and adaptation

Indigenous peoples, particularly in Arctic regions

Adaptation tracking

Knowledge assessment