“We can solve the climate problem without seriously impacting our way of life”

Meteorologist and climatologist Klaus Hasselmann, recipient of the 2nd BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change, highlights that global warming is an urgent yet solvable problem if decisive action is taken. He warns that, without changes to current policies, temperatures could rise by 3 to 4 °C, and stresses that the technology to prevent this already exists. What is essential, he says, is that policymakers and society understand the severity of the challenge and adopt the necessary investments and measures to minimize climate impact.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Climate Change category goes in this second edition to German physicist and mathematician Klaus Hasselmann for developing methods which established that recent global warming trends are primarily attributable to human activities. Hasselmann has crucially advanced the frontiers of scientific and public understanding of climate change.