Three share physics Nobel Prize for work on climate change

Scientists recognised for advances in understanding challenges of global warning

Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Goran K. Hansson (centre) and members of the Nobel Committee for Physics Thors Hans Hansson (left) and John Wettlaufer (right) sit in front of a screen displaying the co-winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics Syukuro Manabe (US-Japan), Klaus Hasselmann (Germany) and Giorgio Parisi (Italy) in Stockholm on Tuesday. Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand /AFP via Getty Images

Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize in physics for their breakthroughs in how we understand the planet’s climate and the challenges presented by global warming.

Syukuro Manabe, a meteorologist at Princeton University, and Klaus Hasselmann, a professor at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, were awarded half the prize for laying "the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth's climate and how humanity influences it," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Tuesday.

A third scientist, Giorgio Parisi from the Sapienza University of Rome, received the other half of the award for his contributions to the theory of disordered materials and random processes. The academics will share the 10 million kronor (€987,000) award.

Annual prizes for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, peace and literature were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896. A prize in economic sciences was added by Sweden's central bank in 1968. - Bloomberg