She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation. She became a senior manager of the climate research programme for a number of UK Government departments in 2002.[3] Since October 2004 she was Head of the Climate Prediction Programme which provides independent scientific advice on climate change. Her research interests include developing and validating climate models.
In an article for The Guardian newspaper, she wrote: "Having to rein in extraordinary claims that the latest extreme event is all due to climate change is at best hugely frustrating and at worse enormously distracting. Overplaying natural variations in the weather as climate change is just as much a distortion of science as underplaying them to claim that climate change has stopped or is not happening."
She added: "Both undermine the basic facts that the implications of climate change are profound and will be severe if greenhouse gas emissions are not cut drastically."[6]
Pope, Vicky; et al. (15 November 2007). "The Met Office Hadley Centre climate modelling capability: The competing requirements for improved resolution, complexity and dealing with uncertainty". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 365 (1860): 2635–265. Bibcode:2007RSPTA.365.2635P. doi:10.1098/rsta.2007.2087. PMID17666385. S2CID303390.
Inness, P.M.; Slingo, J.M.; Woolnough, S.J.; Neale, R.B.; Pope, V.D. (2001). "Organization of tropical convection in a GCM with varying vertical resolution; implications for the simulation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation". Climate Dynamics. 17 (1): 777–793. Bibcode:2001ClDy...17..777I. doi:10.1007/s003820000148. S2CID129356626.
Pope, V.D.; Gallani, M.L.; Rowntree, P.R.; Stratton, R.A. (2000). "The impact of new physical parametrizations in the Hadley Centre climate model: HadAM3". Climate Dynamics. 16 (2–3): 123–146. Bibcode:2000ClDy...16..123P. doi:10.1007/s003820050009. S2CID129848975.