Jean Jouzel

We need to take measures collectively to ensure your generation can adapt to what is now an inevitable process of global warming. The only way for us to adapt, is to restrict the extent of it. This requires political decisions. We need to target carbon neutrality by 2050. This should be a challenge that occupies you over the next 30 years.

Political figures didn't pay attention to what the scientists were saying. Because our message in the 90s was the same one we have today in the 2010s. Which is if we keep on producing more greenhouse gases without restriction, we're looking at consequential shifts in temperature in the second part of the 21st century and beyond.

The last numbers in 2011 indicated that climate change was 90% linked to our emissions of greenhouse gases – 90% directly linked to petrol usage and the rest to deforestation.

Our research on ice cores clearly confirms that the climate change we experience today is linked with our human activities.

“I have long been convinced that looking at the past is a key to understanding the future. This applies not only to ice cores but also to oceanic and continental archives."