Charts and Articles

It is the difference between the average yearly global surface temperature and its pre-industrial baseline. The pre-industrial baseline is calculated as the average temperature from 1850 to 1900. It is also referred to as the observed warming. The average temperature anomaly is a crucial metric beca ...  Read the article

This is the average surface temperature of the whole Earth over a full year. It is based on measurements taken by thousands of weather stations on land and sea. The Yearly Average Temperature is a crucial metric because the change in the Earth’s average temperature causes major transformations to ou ...  Read the article

It is the 30-year moving regression of Earth's temperature increase or decrease per year. It indicates the speed at which the Earth is warming up (red line) or cooling down (blue line), whereby positive higher values indicate faster warming and negative lower values indicate faster cooling. We use a ...  Read the article

This is the geographical breakdown of regional temperature anomalies around the Earth per year. Each temperature anomaly is the difference between the average yearly surface temperature and its pre-industrial baseline for that area. The pre-industrial baseline is calculated as the average temperatur ...  Read the article

This is the monthly imbalance of the energy that the Earth receives from the sun compared to the energy that it radiates back into space. The energy imbalance leads to the warming or cooling of the Earth. Almost all incoming energy comes from the sun. Outgoing energy is dependent on factors like the ...  Read the article

The previous chart shows the big picture of the Earth's energy imbalance. This chart focuses on the impact of the crucial greenhouse gases on the big picture. It shows the impact estimates of the monthly change in the energy balance caused by the three main greenhouse gases, CO₂ (car ...  Read the article

This is the difference in the atmospheric CO₂ of a given year compared to the previous year. We call this an ‘increase’ rather than a ‘change’ because in recent history, every year has had more CO₂ in the atmosphere than the previous year. However, in the past there was sometim ...  Read the article

This is the average amount of CO2 that is in the atmosphere in a given year. The yearly average highlights the long-term trends of atmospheric CO₂ and allows us to see modern day levels compared to pre-industrial levels, even as far back as the last 800,000 years. This is critical because ...  Read the article

This is the average amount of CO₂ that is in the atmosphere in a given month. The monthly average highlights the seasonal variation. The primary unit here is parts per million (ppm), which describes the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ per year. The secondary unit here is gigat ...  Read the article

This refers to the total yearly CO₂ emitted through human activities, such as the combustion of fossil fuels, expressed in gigatonnes. In the scientific literature, it is referred to as anthropogenic emissions. Anthropogenic CO₂ emissions are critical because they are the main ...  Read the article

This is the yearly total amount of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions absorbed by the atmosphere, land, oceans and human activities expressed in gigatonnes. All human-made CO₂ emissions initially go into the atmosphere. CO₂ is then absorbed from the atmosphere partially and ...  Read the article

This is a breakdown by source of the yearly CO₂ emissions from human activities and processes expressed in gigatonnes. It is critical to know and track the sources of human CO₂ emissions in order to understand their individual impacts on climate change. The sources of human CO< ...  Read the article

This is a breakdown by source of the yearly CO₂ absorption from human activities and processes expressed in gigatonnes. It is critical to know and track the sources of human CO₂ absorption in order to understand how they can reduce human net emissions. The sources of human CO  Read the article

This is the difference in the atmospheric methane of a given year compared to the previous year. We call it an ‘increase’ because in recent history, most years have had more methane in the atmosphere than the previous year; however, several years have had a negative value, which means there was a de ...  Read the article

This is the average amount of methane (CH₄) that is in the atmosphere in a given year. The yearly average highlights the long-term trends and hides the seasonal variation. Methane has a large warming effect, considering its much higher Global Warming Potential (GWP) than CO₂, b ...  Read the article

This is the average amount of methane (CH₄) that is in the atmosphere in a given month. The monthly average highlights the seasonal variation. The graph shows the last 3 years to highlight the seasonal variation. Methane has a large warming effect, considering its much higher Global Warmi ...  Read the article

These are the total yearly methane (CH₄) emissions from human activities expressed as weight in megatonnes (Mt). In the scientific literature, these are referred to as anthropogenic emissions. Examples of human-induced emissions include rearing livestock, fugitive and combustion emissions ...  Read the article

This is a breakdown by source of the yearly methane (CH₄) emissions from human activities and processes. It is expressed as weight in megatonnes (Mt). Human-induced methane emissions increase atmospheric methane, which is warming the Earth. The sources of human methane emissions are Lives ...  Read the article

This is the difference in the atmospheric nitrous oxide (N₂O) of a given year compared to the previous year. We call this an ‘increase’ because in recent history, most years have had more nitrous oxide in the atmosphere than the previous year; in the case of a negative value, this means t ...  Read the article

This is the average amount of nitrous oxide (N₂O) that is in the atmosphere in a given year. The yearly average highlights the long-term trends and hides the seasonal variation. Nitrous oxide has a large warming effect, with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) that is 273 times greater than ...  Read the article

This is the average amount of nitrous oxide (N₂O) that is in the atmosphere in a given month. The monthly average highlights the seasonal variation. The graph shows the last 3 years to highlight the seasonal variation. Nitrous oxide has a large warming effect, with a Global Warming Potent ...  Read the article

These are the total yearly nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from human activities expressed as weight in megatonnes (Mt). In the scientific literature, they are referred to as anthropogenic N₂O emissions. Examples of human emissions include the agricultural use of synthetic fertil ...  Read the article

This is a breakdown by source of the yearly nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from human activities and processes, expressed as weight in megatonnes (Mt). Human-induced emissions are the main driver of the increasing atmospheric nitrous oxide that is warming our planet. The sources of human n ...  Read the article

First and foremost, this is the indicator that should be used to track our progress against the Paris Agreement goal of limiting the global temperature increase to well below 2 °C (3.6 °F), while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). Observed warming is the measured temperature ...  Read the article

This is a simple estimate for when the 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) warming level, as mentioned by the Paris Agreement, will be reached based on the Current Human-Induced Warming and its recent changes. The Paris Agreement has the goal of limiting the global temperature increase to well below 2 °C (3.6 °F), whil ...  Read the article

Human-induced and observed global warming are two related indicators of global warming for comparing the observed (actual) warming to the warming attributed to human activities. Observed warming is the measured temperature of the planet, and is directly related to the impacts of climate-related even ...  Read the article

These are the yearly greenhouse gas emissions that result from human activities. This includes the following emissions: These emissions are the main drivers of human-induced warming. The total emissions reached 55±5.2 GtCO₂e in 2021. The CO₂-equivalent unit makes it possible t ...  Read the article

The Current Remaining Carbon Budget is the amount of CO₂ expressed in Gigatonnes that can be emitted in the future to keep human-induced warming below 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). The Remaining Carbon Budget is not just a single number. Scientists calculate budgets for a range of likelihoods t ...  Read the article

These are the total yearly CO₂ emissions emitted through human activities. They are the sum of CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and industry plus emissions from land-use, land-use change and forestry. In the scientific literature human-induced emissions are often referred to as ...  Read the article