Scientist wins major climate award

Qin Dahe, a Chinese glaciologist and climate scientist, won this year's Volvo Environment Prize on Monday for his outstanding research on the cryosphere (areas of the Earth's surface covered by ice) and climate change.

A ceremony will be held in Stockholm, Sweden on Nov 26.

The Volvo Environment Prize was established in 1988, and is awarded annually to people who have made outstanding scientific discoveries concerning the environment and sustainable development.

The prize consists of a diploma, a glass sculpture and a cash sum of $209,000.

Qin is an academic with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and of the Third World Academy of Sciences and is also a former director of the China Meteorological Administration.

Involved in the preparation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports since 1996, Qin is a key contributor to the fifth assessment report released in September that stated that scientists are now 95 percent certain that human activity is driving global warming.

In May 2013, Qin was elected to the Scientific Committee of Future Earth under the International Council for Science.