Jean-Charles Hourcade is director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He is acting as director of the CIRED (Centre International deRecherches sur l’Environnement et le Développement), a laboratory belonging of the CNRS and attached to the E.H.E.S.S. (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris) , the E.N.P.C. (Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussée) and Agroparistech. Since 1990, he played a key role in French social science research coordination for backing up the awareness and negotiating capacities of official and governmental agencies in charge the climate change. He participated in the French negotiating team between COP1 and COP 6. He coordinates an excellence network R2DS in Ile de France around sustainable development issues. He led several EU research projects and was expert for most international agencies about environmental and energy (OECD, UNEP, WB, AIE, UNESCO). He participates actively in the IPCC (which received the Peace Nobel price in 2007) as a convening lead author for the 2nd and 3rd assessment report and lead author for the 4th. He is also a member of the National Commitee for Research in France.