Now at IPa! FuPa: Past warm greenhouse climates of the Cenozoic: implication for the future.

IPa Life Article published on 01 September 2026 , Updated on 01 September 2026

@ Originals drawings by Guy Le Besnerais (Researcher & French comic book artist and illustrator)

The school is now well underway and has got off to a very successful start. Over the course of two and a half weeks, the programme brings together approximately 30 advanced graduate students from 13 different countries, alongside 13 internationally recognised speakers and experts in climate science.

The first two weeks focus on past warm greenhouse climates of the Cenozoic, combining lectures, discussions, and collaborative group projects. Students are exploring key topics including greenhouse gas reconstructions, equator-to-pole temperature gradients, ocean circulation and gateway dynamics, cryosphere evolution, and extreme greenhouse climates such as the PETM. The programme brings together empirical evidence and climate modelling, with particular emphasis on model–data comparisons and the uncertainties associated with both approaches.

The final three days broaden the scope of the school to science communication and the long-term implications of anthropogenic climate change. Through keynote lectures and interactive breakout sessions, students will engage with experts and science communicators on topics ranging from the challenges of communicating climate change and its impacts across different sectors to distinguishing reliable scientific information from misinformation.

The school is taking place in a highly stimulating and collaborative atmosphere, with active exchanges between students, lecturers, mentors, and invited experts. The diversity of participants and perspectives is providing a particularly valuable setting for interdisciplinary discussions on past, present, and future greenhouse climates.

If you want more informations about the program : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BWPW5ZnSFVFnoQURvo6uPKji3Kj1oOc7YEYfHfvvLc0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.q55ewrmrn0w

Confirmed lecturers

Ray Pierre-Humbert (University of Oxford)

Gilles Ramstein (LSCE, CEA Paris-Saclay)

David Battisti (University of Washington)

Jean-Louis Dufresne (LMD, Sorbonne University)

James Rae (University of St. Andrews)

Bjørg Risebrobakken (NORCE Climate)

Julia Tindall (University of Leeds)

Kerim Hestnes Nisancioglu (University of Bergen)

Margret Steinthorsdottir (Swedish Museum of Natural History)

Ning Tan (Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS)