‘Climate change is really here: We should seize this crisis moment to create a new momentum’

Oliver Farry is pleased to welcome Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Climate Scientist and Professor at the Universities of Louvain and Liège in Belgium. Europe’s latest heatwave is further evidence of a structural transformation of the continent’s climate, warns Professor van Ypersele. His central argument rejects both fatalism and complacency. While insisting that humanity has not yet reached “the point of no return,” he argues that the world has entered a period of exceptional urgency in which the costs of delaying climate action are escalating rapidly. He develops three interconnected themes: extreme heat, wildfires and public health crises as manifestations of a changing climate; he criticises the inadequacy of current political responses, suggesting that governments continue to underestimate the scale and immediacy of the challenge despite mounting scientific evidence; and he argues that adaptation and mitigation must proceed simultaneously: societies must become more resilient to unavoidable climate impacts while accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels to prevent even greater disruption.