David Wratt


David Stuart Wratt is New Zealand climate scientist. He is currently Chief Scientist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and is responsible for NIWA's National Climate Centre. He has a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury. He has worked in the USA and Australia as well as New Zealand. His expertise includes climate and meteorology, climate change science and impacts, mountain meteorology, and air quality.
He is a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He chairs the Climate Committee of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He is a member of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and he is a Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group 1, which assesses the physical science of climate change.
He was a Coordinating Lead Author of the "Australia and New Zealand" chapter of the IPCC Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
After gaining a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois, he worked for the New Zealand Meteorological Service. In 1992 he and other climate researchers transferred to NIWA.
Wratt has stated:
“There’s a strong scientific case for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We need a combination of reducing our emissions in New Zealand and being part of international negotiations to reduce emissions globally in order to forestall the worst effects.”

Wratt was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order in the 2012 New Year Honours, for services to science.