Two of the three 2021 Nobel laureates in physics, Manabe and Hasselmann, were recognized for their pioneering research yielding a better understanding of the ongoing global climate change. Manabe significantly extended the radiative equilibrium-based greenhouse effect model, proposed by the Swedish Svante Arrhenius back in the late 19th century, by incorporating the effects of thermally-driven vertical convection. Hasselmann's work was essential in the development of certain statistical fingerprinting methods which enabled researchers to contrast observational climate records with model predictions. Their results contributed markedly to the emergence of the present scientific consensus on climate change.