Prof. Philip Antwi-Agyei is a Professor of Climate Change and Sustainability Science and the Provost of the College of Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. He also serves as the Director of the West Africa Climate and Health Science and Policy Consortium, based at KNUST. He previously served as Director of the Office of Grants and Research at KNUST, where he provided leadership in research development, grants management and institutional research strategy.

A former Commonwealth Scholar, Prof. Antwi-Agyei obtained his PhD from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, in July 2013. He also holds an MSc degree from the University of Hull, United Kingdom, and a BSc degree from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.

Philip is an interdisciplinary climate change scientist, whose research involves developing innovative multi-scale approaches for assessing vulnerability to climate change for dryland African farming systems. Specifically, his research uses spatial databases, ecological studies and field-based participatory approaches within the broader understanding of how climate change affects food production and rural livelihoods from a developing country perspective.

Prof. Antwi-Agyei was selected in July 2025 as a Coordinating Lead Author for the Seventh Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He also served as a Lead Author for the IPCC Special Report on the Impacts of Global Warming of 1.5 ⁰C above pre-industrial levels, and as a Contributing Author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Additionally, Philip was appointed to the United Nations High Level Panel of Experts on Building Resilient Food Systems Report of the World Committee on Food Security in September 2024. 

Prof. Antwi-Agyei is a multiple award-winning scholar who has secured several prestigious international research grants and fellowships. His recent awards include the Wellcome Trust Climate and Health Science and Policy Consortium (2026–2031), Trustparency (2025–2027), Future Leaders–Africa Independent Research (FLAIR) Fellowship (2020–2023), and FLAIR Collaboration Grant (2021–2023).

He was also a Fellow of the prestigious Climate Research for Development (CR4D) Programme (2019–2021), an initiative of the African Climate Policy Centre, implemented in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID) Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) and the African Academy of Sciences, Nairobi, Kenya.

His other research funding includes grants from Science for Weather Information and Forecasting Techniques (Africa SWIFT) (2016–2021), funded through the UK Global Challenges Research Fund; Innovation Grants from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Leeds, UK (2016–2018); and the International Foundation for Science (2010–2013). Prof. Antwi-Agyei has also received funding through the Climate Impacts Research Capacity and Leadership Enhancement (CIRCLE) Fellowship (2015–2016), supported by the UK Department for International Development and the African Academy of Sciences, Nairobi.

Prof. Antwi-Agyei has provided consultancy and technical advisory services to several leading international and national organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Canada, the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana, among others.

He has made significant contributions to climate change adaptation policy and practice in Ghana. Notably, he led the development of the National Adaptation Plan Framework and the National Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan for the Infrastructure Sector for Ghana. He also served as a technical consultant on adaptation for the development of Ghana’s Revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. Philip has further led assessments of district-specific climate change risks and vulnerabilities across several districts and municipalities in Ghana, generating evidence to support locally appropriate adaptation planning and decision-making.

He has over 21 years of university teaching, research and administrative experiences and has published extensively on climate change issues in top-tier peer reviewed international journals. Prof. Antwi-Agyei has presented has research in several international conferences and workshops.

Philip is a Visiting Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Philip has also been a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, University of Leeds, United Kingdom.