A special event will take place on Monday 8 July 2019 starting at 16.00 hrs in the Budinich Lecture Hall at ICTP. The following talks on hot topics of climate change, of approx 20 minutes each, are planned. Sandrine Bony, LMD, France: Clouds in the climate system, why so much uncertainty? Kerry Emanuel, MIT, USA: Will our weather extremes become even more extreme? Bjorn Stevens, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPIM), Germany: "Beyond Global Warming". Questions can be submitted to a dedicated link to build the discussion after the talks. The event will be livestreamed from the ICTP website. All are most welcome to participate. Information on the speakers and abstracts: Sandrine Bony is a CNRS Director of Research in Paris, France. Her main research interest is advancing understanding of the role of clouds and cloud processes in climate sensitivity and in the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere, using a combination of modeling, observational and conceptual approaches. She is presently co-organising a large-scale field experiment that will take place in 2020 over the tropical Atlantic near Barbados. Kerry Emanuel is the Cecil and Ida Green professor of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA. His research speciality is hurricane physics and he was the first to investigate how long-term climate change might affect hurricane activity, an issue that continues to occupy him today. His interests also include cumulus convection, and advanced methods of sampling the atmosphere in aid of numerical weather prediction. Bjorn Stevens is a director at the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany. His research blends modeling, theory and field work to help articulate the role of aerosols, clouds and atmospheric convection in the climate system with pioneering contributions to both understanding and modelling of mixing and microphysical processes and their impact on the structure and organization of clouds. ABSTRACTS: SANDRINE BONY: Clouds in the climate system, why so much uncertainty? Clouds are often quoted as 'the largest source of uncertainty in climate change'. Why? Some of the reasons why clouds are so important for climate and climate change will be reviewed. In particular, it will be shown how, by affecting the radiative exchanges between the Earth and space, clouds can influence the magnitude of global warming and the regional distribution of wet and dry areas around the world. Areas of research which might improve our understanding and prediction of the role of clouds in climate change will be discussed. BJORN STEVENS: Beyond Global Warming The outlines of global warming are clear. Earth has warmed by about 1ºC relative to a baseline in the late 19th century. Barring surprises it will warm by an additional 1ºC over the next half century. Beyond the general outline of this warming trend, and its causes, the science is anything but settled. In this talk I will look into the crystal ball of worlds unknown, explain why doing so is important, and outline new approaches that may help address the challenges a warming world poses for climate scientists. KERRY EMANUEL: Will our weather extremes become even more extreme? I will review the theoretical bases for the idea that tropical cyclones will become more intense and produce more rain as temperatures rise, and present some new results pertaining to Hurricane Maria in 2017. Of particular concern for Italy, we will also review what is known about Mediterranean hurricanes (or “Medicanes”) and how they might respond to climate change, with an extension to polar lows if there is time. Finally, the relationship between extratropical cyclones and climate will be discussed.