How can we combat climate change? Interview with Roberto Buizza, professor of physics at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and expert in climate science

How can we combat climate change? 2024 was the hottest year in 125,000 years. We have witnessed extreme weather events that have caused destruction and death. To ensure a sustainable future for the planet, there is no more time for reflection or theory: concrete action is needed, starting with politics.
Roberto Buizza, full professor of physics at the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Sustainability and Climate at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, is one of the leading experts in meteorology and climate science. In his latest book, ‘Il meteo ed il clima: conoscerli per prevederli’ (Carocci Editore), published recently, he illustrates the factors that determine weather events and climate, the link between these phenomena and climate change, the causes of climate change, and which countries are most responsible for the current situation. Together with him, we try to outline the key points necessary to save the planet: a sharp reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and the behaviors that each of us can adopt to make an important contribution to sustainability.

Professor Buizza, can you give us a summary of your latest book?

Since I started working on climate issues in 2018, I have noticed a great deal of ignorance and misinformation about weather and climate phenomena at all levels of society. We read about unpredictable events, when in reality the event was indicated as possible, with a certain probability. On climate, we read, for example, that biofuel or methane gas can be classified as ‘green’. This explains in part why false news about climate is reported and why we are not reducing our use of fossil fuels as we should. This book aims to communicate to a non-expert audience what weather events we can expect and what is happening to the Earth's climate. Understanding weather, climate, and climate change is essential to identifying how to prevent climate change from making increasingly large areas of the Earth uninhabitable. For example, in the last chapter, I answer 20 key questions that are often asked about climate change and are often answered incorrectly. These incorrect answers are then used to support wrong decisions that have enormous implications for our generation and future generations.

Is climate change solely responsible for extreme weather events? Or is the specter of climate change often used to mask policies of land exploitation?

Global warming is causing an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Extreme events cause damage and death because the land has been exploited and is unable to withstand the impact of extreme events. Investment in adaptation (to climate change) is essential to reduce the impact of climate change. But without mitigation policies, i.e., without a drastic and immediate reduction in the use of fossil fuels (coal, fuel oil, methane gas, biofuel), we will not solve the problem, as the climate will continue to warm, causing a further increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme events. Consider, for example, the impact of global warming on sea levels: adaptation policies lead to the construction of barriers (the Mose in Venice, for example) to limit damage. But if we do not stop using fossil fuels in the meantime, the climate will continue to warm and sea levels will rise even further, and the barriers we have built will become insufficient. It is therefore absolutely necessary to invest in both adaptation and mitigation policies: indeed, I would say that we should invest proportionally more in mitigation projects/policies than in adaptation.

The policies implemented by world powers do not seem to be in line with the principles of sustainability and the fight against climate change. What are the risks?

The projections reported in the IPCC reports are clear: if we continue as we are, the global average temperature will exceed 3^oC before the end of the century, thus doubling the current level of global warming. For the Mediterranean, this will translate into an average temperature increase of about 7.5^oC, and for the polar ice caps, even higher values. Vast areas of Africa will become uninhabitable, leading to increased migration to Europe: for Italy, this will mean ten times more migrants than today. Migration will cause tensions and conflicts, both within countries exposed to extreme weather and with neighboring countries. In general, the increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme events will cause even more damage and deaths, especially in countries that have fewer resources to adapt (countries that often did not cause the problem). There is no acceptable level of global warming: the longer we continue to use fossil fuels, the more the climate warms, the greater the damage and deaths, and the more complex the problem becomes. It is therefore clearly in everyone's interest to tackle the problem and achieve the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Italy, given its exposure to extreme events, should be the first to promote decarbonization, rather than trying to slow down efforts towards net zero emissions.

Can you briefly explain your academic work on climate change?

Before joining the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in 2018, I worked for 27 years in weather and climate forecasting, contributing to the development of numerical models of the Earth system at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF, based in England). Then, in 2018, I shifted my focus to climate and the impact of climate change in various sectors (health, economy, agriculture). Together with colleagues from IUSS Pavia and the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, I designed a national PhD program on sustainable development and climate change (PhD-SDC). The course was supported by the Ministry and around 60 Italian universities, which funded around 400 doctoral scholarships in the first four cycles, and is now in its fifth cycle. For both the School and the PhD-SDC, I teach courses on numerical modeling of the Earth system, chaos and predictability, and climate science. I believe that educating as many students as possible and communicating exactly what is happening to the Earth system and what will happen depending on different emission scenarios is essential to bring about change. My book is a further contribution to achieving this goal. We have the technologies and resources to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but the political will to do so is lacking. Because decarbonization affects so many powerful interests, misinformation and pressure to slow down change are enormous. I hope that my educational and research work will contribute to the realization of a more just, sustainable, and decarbonized society.