ONE of Exeter's top weather experts has returned home after giving a keynote speech to some of the world's leading climate researchers in Copenhagen.

Professor Peter Cox, the University of Exeter's Met Office Chair in Climate System Dynamics, spoke on tipping points in terrestrial ecosystems, which included recent findings on the possibility of abrupt changes in tropical forests and peatlands.

Professor Cox described the potential loss of the rainforest as "a catastrophe" and warned: "The tropics are drivers of the earth's atmospheric circulation and killing the Amazon is likely to impact weather patterns across the globe.

"The remaining intact Amazon forest is a hotspot of biodiversity, and is also currently acting as a very significant sink for human CO2 emissions.

"Loss of the forest would turn this carbon sink into a strong source, with the potential to add about 10 years of current CO2 emissions to the atmosphere."

The congress is one of the world's largest ever conferences on climate change, with more than 2,000 participants from 80 countries.

Professor Cox is one of three Met Office chairs, working on climate change science at the University of Exeter, and leads the university's Climate Change and Sustainable Futures team.