Charts and Articles

Articles explain every chart, figure and metric provided on Climate Change Tracker.

Yearly Average Observed Temperature Anomaly

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


Yearly Average Temperature

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


Rate of Temperature Change the Earth is warming up

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


Yearly Temperature Anomaly Distribution

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


Monthly Earth's Energy Imbalance, Radiative Forcing

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


Greenhouse Gases' Impact on Energy Balance, Radiative Forcing

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


Earth's Yearly Atmospheric CO2 Carbon Dioxide Levels Increase

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


Earth's Yearly Average Atmospheric CO2 Carbon Dioxide Levels

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


Earth's Monthly Average Atmospheric CO2 Carbon Dioxide Levels

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


Human-Induced Yearly CO2 Carbon Dioxide Emissions

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


Yearly Absorption/Sink of Human-Induced CO2 Carbon Dioxide Emissions

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


Breakdown of Yearly Human-Induced Gross CO2 - Carbon Dioxide Emissions

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


Breakdown of Yearly Human-Induced CO2 - Carbon dioxide Absorption

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


Earth's Yearly Atmospheric CH4 Methane Levels Increase

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


Earth's Yearly Average Atmospheric CH4 Methane Levels

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


Earth's Monthly Average Atmospheric CH4 Methane Levels

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


Human-Induced/Anthropogenic Yearly CH4 Methane Emissions

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


Breakdown of Human-Induced/Anthropogenic Yearly CH4 Methane Emissions

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


Earth's Yearly Atmospheric N2O Nitrous Oxide Levels Increase

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


Earth's Yearly Average Atmospheric N2O Nitrous Oxide Levels

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


Earth's Monthly Average Atmospheric N2O Nitrous Oxide Levels

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


Human-Induced Yearly N2O Nitrous Oxide Emissions

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


Breakdown of Human-Induced Yearly N2O Nitrous Oxide Emissions

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


Recent Human-Induced Warming

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


Current trajectory

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

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


Yearly Human-Induced Greenhouse Gas Emissions in CO2 Equivalent

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


Current Remaining Carbon Budget and Trajectory

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


Yearly Total Human-Induced Net CO2 Emissions

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