“Acceptance Speech” Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2023 in Climate Change

Acceptance speech by Valérie Masson-Delmotte, winner of the 2023 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change, who was honored alongside Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Jean Jouzel, Jakob Schwander and Thomas F. Stocker for demonstrating the relationship between greenhouse gases and atmospheric temperatures over the past 800,000 years. Her research on polar ice cores has helped reconstruct past climate variations and improve projections of global warming.

Masson-Delmotte explains how ice core records reveal changes in temperature and greenhouse gas concentrations, whose current levels are unprecedented over the past 800,000 years. She highlights the importance of combining these records with climate models to understand climate sensitivity and anticipate future changes. She also warns of accelerating sea level rise and the risks associated with the instability of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, with significant consequences for coastal populations.