“Climate change poses nothing less than a serious existential threat to organised advanced society”

After receiving the 13th BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change, Ian Burton examines how societies can manage increasingly intense climate risks. He reflects on adaptation policies, the limitations of traditional management, and the need for transformative decisions in an environment of growing uncertainty.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change has gone in this thirteenth edition to Neil Adger, Ian Burton and Karen O’Brien for changing the paradigm of climate change action, previously confined to mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, by folding in the concept of adaptation to unavoidable impacts.