Jonathan Overpeck looked at moving to Wisconsin.

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An internationally known global-warming expert has decided to stay at the University of Arizona after considering a move to the University of Wisconsin.

One reason Jonathan Overpeck is staying, he said Wednesday, is that UA administrators agreed to construct a new $90 million building housing environmental researchers from several departments.

The UA also agreed to hire more faculty in environmental science and to give a 22 percent salary boost to Overpeck, taking his pay to $160,000 a year.

Overpeck, a climate scientist, co-authored last year's U.N. international climate change report that shared in the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

"I want to be at a place that will be the best in the nation, and I really think that UA will be the best in the nation" at environmental science, Overpeck said.

But as of late Wednesday, university officials still hadn't specified how many new faculty would be hired or how soon the jobs would be created.

The new Environmental and Natural Science Building also looks far from a sure thing. Its money is contained in a proposed $1.4 billion package of statewide university construction projects that is languishing in the Legislature.

Called an economic stimulus package, it contains money for all three state universities.

Because of the package's lack of progress so far, a top legislator, Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, criticized UA officials Wednesday, saying, "I don't think anyone should make any promises on something that's not agreed to."

A UA spokesman replied to Verschoor's comment by saying that since the UA has had plans in the works for that building for some time, there could be hopes of finding other money if the construction package fails.

"It's more of a question of timing," said Johnny Cruz, UA's director of media relations. "There could conceivably be another source, but I couldn't tell you what or how long it would take."

Overpeck, director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, had been in the running since last fall for the University of Wisconsin job. He said he was named the top finalist for director of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in Madison, although a university spokesman said Overpeck was one of two finalists.

Overpeck said he and his wife, Julia Cole, have a personal attachment to Tucson; Cole is an associate UA geosciences professor.

Besides that, Overpeck said he decided to stay because "it helps to be on the front lines of climate change."

"The climate in the Southwest is changing faster than anywhere else in the U.S.," he said. "The implications of climate change have already started in Arizona. We'll have to deal with warmer temperatures, less precipitation and more drought, and I think we can do that.

"I want to be in a place where I can make a difference. It is good to be in a place where there is a real difference to make."

Overpeck was a lead author on the April 2007, Nobel Prize- winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report linking atmospheric greenhouse gas increases to human activity.

Today, his Institute for the Study of Planet Earth is housed on the second floor of the Campus Christian Center, at 715 N. Park Ave.

"It's definitely limited what you can do there by space," Cole said. "The institute has lots of proposals for developing new programs. We put out proposals and we wonder, if we get funded, where can we put these people?"

Cole also got a UA salary increase, from about $81,000 to a little more than $90,000, and a commitment to hire a part-time laboratory manager to help her research, she said.

She said she's concerned that the new building and the rest of the construction package could be a tough sell in the Legislature because of its budget problems, but she and Overpeck will try to be optimistic.

Verschoor said he thinks the university projects have little chance of passage, because of the state's budget deficit. The state's three public universities, including the UA, already have to cut a combined $14.7 million in spending to balance this year's state budget.

Asked about chances of a scaled-back university construction package, he said, "A lot of things are possible. But right now … we're trying to resolve the huge deficit. There are quite a few members, and I'm one, who don't necessarily believe that borrowing a billion and a half dollars is 'economic stimulus.' "

If the university package isn't approved, Overpeck and Cole are not going to consider other offers again for school year 2009-10, said Cole, adding, "We didn't sign any 10-year contracts."

"It's a very wrenching and draining process. It's not something everyone wants to go through every year," Cole said.

"It's something that has consumed us since last summer. It is a relief that we are staying."