The subject centres on the timing, magnitude, and rates of past ocean and climate change. Emphasis is given to the: (i) different timescales and patterns of (palaeo)climate change; (ii); most commonly used tools of investigation, and (iii) relationship between (palaeo)climate forcings, feedbacks, and responses of the climate system. Focusing on the investigative tools, the lectures illustrate the various micropalaeontological, geochemical, and geophysical proxies as well as the statistical methods that allow to rigorously determine confidence levels of e.g., chronological frameworks and proxy-based reconstructions. Examples are given of the different episodes of climate change that punctuated the Earth's climate history. These will be taken from the last few centuries to millennia, the last 2 million years, and the so-called 'deep-time'. Insights are also provided into the use of the palaeoclimate record to better constrain 'climate sensitivity' that is an essential metric to predict by how much, and how fast, the Earth may warm in response to the ongoing anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing.
