Our planet is getting warmer but there are solutions
We talk to brilliant climatologist Professor Peter Cox about what is happening to our climate
World-leading climatologist and scientist Professor Peter Cox has spoken about groundbreaking technologies to help stop the clock on climate change, in the latest episode of The Decarbonisation Dialogue.
The Salix podcast showcases a range of voices from across science, business, industry, the arts, journalism, the church and young people.
Professor Cox, the director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter also talked about his career, work in the Amazon and how he’s keen to help develop the scientists for tomorrow.
The physicist has dedicated his life to studying climate change and today is driving the development of groundbreaking climate research at the University of Exeter.
In episode 10 of our series, Peter, who is widely referenced in the media, explained what is happening to our planet.
He said: “The planet is warming and has warmed quite significantly. The last ten years on record are the warmest.
“We know the climate is changing and we have had the science of this since the nineteenth century.
“We’ve understood the concept of greenhouse gas; we know carbon dioxide is going up because of fossil fuels.
“We know this and we’re getting more and more circumstantial evidence of increasing weather extremes. So, if you warm up the climate, we tend to get more water in the atmosphere, which means when it does rain, it rains heavier.
“It also means when it’s not raining it evaporates faster so you get an intensification of the hydrological cycle, which means you get even more floods and droughts, bizarrely both of them, so there are bigger and bigger impacts on people.
“Climate change is as clear as it can be.”
We’ve got to keep our eyes on the rising impacts of climate change and trying to understand how the extremes are being affected by climate and that is happening anyway.
The thing about CO2, is ultimately you’ve got to get greenhouse gases down if you want to stabilise the climate.
But what if we can’t do it fast enough and we crash through some of these targets, would you do something else?
This week [2 June 2025] the UK has recorded its warmest spring on record and its driest in more than 50 years, according to Met Office figures.
According to the figures, spring temperatures surpassed the long-term average by 1.4 degrees Celsius and beat the previous warmest spring in 2024, in records dating back to 1884.
Peter, who is also professor of climate system dynamics in mathematics, has previously worked at the Met Office-Hadley Centre and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, urged caution over the 1.5 degrees Celsius climate threshold.
He believes 1.5 degrees Celsius is not going to happen and we’re looking at 2 degrees Celsius.
Although he said if we can stop global warming, we can stop climate change. He said: “If we get to net zero, we will stop 90% climate change.”
He added: “We’re going to crash through 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world will not end, but it will get harder, but we must not crash through 2 degrees Celsius and that will take a lot more work than we’re currently doing collectively across the globe.”
Despite the current figures, Peter is positive that people will take action and believes education and understanding is a key factor when discussing what is happening to our planet.
However, he also believes that climate emergency measures and new technology are a key part of the discussion. Although these can involve controversial technologies such as geoengineering and solar radiation management, he said they should remain part of the discussion.
He added: “We’ve got to keep our eyes on the rising impacts of climate change and trying to understand how the extremes are being affected by climate and that is happening anyway.
“The thing about CO2, is ultimately you’ve got to get greenhouse gases down if you want to stabilise the climate.
“But what if we can’t do it fast enough and we crash through some of these targets, would you do something else?”
As well as continuing his research work and looking at solutions to climate change, Peter is keen to focus on supporting the colleagues and developing new scientists so they can carry on the work of the future.
He said: “This is a bit of a test for humanity. It requires a degree of global cooperation, and we haven’t managed before.
“That means it’s hard but also means in order to solve it that means we probably have to get something even better, which is global co-operation. I see that as a positive, it might be the thing that draw us together. It won’t be all of us. There will always be some dissenters.
“We are connected by a common interest, a common desire to stabilise the climate.
“It does feel to me it’s a hard problem because it involves people working together and that means it’s doubly worth doing.
“It’s a really exciting thing to study the world as it’s changing, you worry for your kids and for your grandchildren but in terms of studying a problem, there is nothing more interesting than this at the moment, I think from a science point of view.
“You’re constantly being stretched to understand what’s going on. It is an unintended experiment, I wish we weren’t doing it, but if we’re going to be doing it, I want to understand it and try and help to solve it.
“Climate change is happening anyway, and the best thing I can do is try and understand it and help in some way and that keeps me going.”
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