Acceptance speech: 18th Frontiers of Knowledge Awards for Climate Change and Environmental Sciences

Acceptance speech by Carl Wunsch, winner of the 2025 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change and Environmental Sciences, who was honored for his fundamental contributions to research that has revealed the impact of global warming on oceans across the planet.

Wunsch highlights the global, international and sustained nature of ocean observation, the result of decades of scientific, technological and institutional collaboration. He warns that changes in the ocean are taking place across the planet and, in many cases, on timescales that exceed a human lifetime, with decisive consequences for future generations. He also underlines that maintaining global-scale observation systems is essential to documenting, understanding and addressing the risks of climate change.