--- description: Find out why Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai is one of the 100 most influential people of 2022. title: Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bd045508a9bc702/698a32154ee2621f5031a36c/IPCC-Vale%CC%81rie-Masson-Delmotte-Panmao-Zhai-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- May 23, 2022 # Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai by Bill McKibben  Illustration by Brian Lutz for Time (Source Photos: Getty Images (2)) Scientists have been collaborating for more than three decades now to understand the greatest peril the earth has ever faced—climate change. Much of that understanding has been made possible by the U.N. climate-­science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In August 2021, the [IPCC sounded a dire warning](https://time.com/6152183/ipcc-report-climate-change-adaptation/ "undefined") by releasing a report that made headlines across the globe. The report was the result of a gargantuan collaboration between over 200 climate scientists globally, and was informed by over 14,000 scientific papers. Chinese climatologist ­Panmao Zhai and French climate scientist Valérie Masson-Delmotte—the co-chairs of the IPCC’s Working Group 1—steered the enormous undertaking amidst COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions, which meant for the first time, this massive piece of work was coordinated completely online. Subsequent reports led by other IPCC working groups have shown the scale of the impacts and the need for rapid action around the globe—together instigating important conversations and urgency among policymakers globally. The documents show a world on the brink, with terrible damage already done, but still some prospect of stopping short of disaster—if, somehow, we can muster the will in the short window of time remaining. _McKibben is an author and an environmentalist_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177851/ipcc-panmao-zhai-and-valerie-masson-delmotte/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177851/ipcc-panmao-zhai-and-valerie-masson-delmotte/"},"headline":"Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai: TIME100 2022","datePublished":"2022-05-23T10:25:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:09.281Z","description":"Find out why Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai are on TIME's list of the 100 most influential people of 2022.","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177851/ipcc-panmao-zhai-and-valerie-masson-delmotte/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","TIME100 2022"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bd045508a9bc702/698a32154ee2621f5031a36c/IPCC-Vale%CC%81rie-Masson-Delmotte-Panmao-Zhai-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bd045508a9bc702/698a32154ee2621f5031a36c/IPCC-Vale%CC%81rie-Masson-Delmotte-Panmao-Zhai-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177851/ipcc-panmao-zhai-and-valerie-masson-delmotte/","name":"Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai: TIME100 2022"}}]}] ```