Lea Kauppi has extensive expertise in strategic management of multidisciplinary institutes, as well as coordinating and developing international cooperation. She has evaluated several national environmental research programmes as a coordinator or chair of steering groups, assessed international research proposals and programmes, and reviewed the management and performance of research institutions. She was a Lead Author of the IRP’s 2009 report, Assessing Biofuels: towards sustainable production and use of resources. She is also a member of the Working Groups on Water, and Land & Soil.
Dr Kauppi’s thorough knowledge of science policy was gained through her membership of the Research Council for Environmental Research (Academy of Finland) and the Science and Technology Policy Council. She is presently Secretary General of the Finnish Environment Institute and Chair of the Working Group on Monitoring and Assessment of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Convention on Transboundary Rivers, Lakes and Groundwater.
Dr Kauppi’s research focuses on the environmental impacts of agriculture on aquatic ecosystems, development of integrated assessment tools for acidification and the environmental impacts of climate change. She currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. She has served on many panels, including for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment. She holds a PhD in limnology from the University of Helsinki, Finland.
Contributed to the following reports
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Metal Stocks in Society
A key question that relates to the very broad and intensive use of metals is whether society needs to be concerned about long-term supplies of any or many of them. To examine this question, this reports reviews 54 studies on the topic.
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Building Natural Capital: How REDD+ Can Support a Green Economy
This report, on the status and future potential of REDD+, describes the benefits of forests and other ecosystems as a way of demonstrating that forests have multiple values beyond carbon sequestration and are a foundation for sustainable societies.
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City-Level Decoupling
Most resource consumption takes place in cities. How a city is designed shapes how its inhabitants use transport, energy and water, and dispose of waste. The challenge is to build vibrant cities with reduced resource use and environmental impacts.
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Assessing Global Land Use
This report examines the impacts of global trends - population growth, urbanization, changes in diets and consumption behaviours - on global land use, considering biodiversity, the supply of food, fibre and fuel, and resource security.
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Assessing Biofuels
This report provides a robust assessment of key problems of production and use of biomass for energy purposes and options for more efficient and sustainable production and use of biomass.