Climate Change
How are global temperatures changing, and what are the impacts on sea level rise, sea ice, and ice sheets?
Current climate change is primarily caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases. This warming can drive large changes in sea level, sea ice and glacier balances, rainfall patterns, and extreme temperatures. This has potentially devastating impacts on human health, farming systems, the stability of societies, and other species.
To limit and stop climate change, we need to greatly reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases. We cover these emissions in our work on CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. This will require massive shifts in our energy and food systems, which we also cover in detail.
On this page, you will find global data and research on the impacts of climate change, including temperature anomalies, sea level rise, sea ice melt, glacier loss, and ocean acidification.
Research & Writing
More people care about climate change than you think
The majority of people in every country support action on climate, but the public consistently underestimates this share.
How much have temperatures risen in countries across the world?
Explore country-by-country data on monthly temperature anomalies.
How much CO2 can the world emit while keeping warming below 1.5°C and 2°C?
The budget to keep temperatures below 1.5°C is less than a decade of current emissions. For 2°C, it’s less than three decades.
Related work on climate change and its impacts
Interactive charts on climate change
Global temperature anomalies by month
Antarctic sea ice extent
Arctic sea ice extent
Average temperature anomaly
Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere
Global monthly temperature anomaly
Global warming: monthly sea surface temperature anomaly
Ice sheet mass balance
Monthly average ocean heat content in the top 2,000 meters
Monthly average ocean heat content in the top 700 meters
Ocean acidification: mean seawater pH
Sea level rise
Sea surface temperature anomaly
Annual temperature anomalies
Autumn temperature anomalies
Average monthly surface temperature
Concentration of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere
Decadal temperature anomalies
Glaciers: change of mass of US glaciers
Global atmospheric CO₂ concentration
Global atmospheric methane concentrations
Global atmospheric nitrous oxide concentration
Global warming contributions by gas and source
Global warming contributions from fossil fuels and land use
Global warming: Contributions to the change in global mean surface temperature
Global yearly surface temperature anomalies
Heat content in the top 2,000 meters of the world's oceans
Heat content in the top 700 meters of the world's oceans
Methane concentration in the atmosphere
Monthly average surface temperatures by decadedecadal
Monthly average surface temperatures by year
Monthly sea ice extent in the Antarctic
Monthly sea ice extent in the Antarctic, decadal average
Monthly sea ice extent in the Arctic
Monthly sea ice extent in the Arctic, decadal average
Monthly surface temperature anomalies by decadedecadal
Monthly surface temperature anomalies by year
Monthly temperature anomalies
People underestimate others' willingness to take climate action
Sea ice anomaly in the Antarctic by month
Sea ice anomaly in the Arctic by month
Seasonal temperature anomaly in the United States
Share of people who believe in climate change and think it's a serious threat to humanity
Share of people who say their government should do more to tackle climate change
Share of people who support policies to tackle climate change
Share that think people in their country should act to tackle climate change
Snow cover in North America
Spring temperature anomalies
Summer temperature anomalies
Surface temperature anomaly
Temperature anomalies by month
Winter temperature anomalies
Countries with national adaptation plans for climate change
Financial support provided through the Green Climate Fund
Nationally determined contributions to climate change
Opinions of young people on the threats of climate change
Projected number of air conditioning units
Share of households with air conditioning
Cite this work
Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. This topic page can be cited as:
Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Veronika Samborska (2024) - “Climate Change” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/climate-change' [Online Resource]BibTeX citation
@article{owid-climate-change,
author = {Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado and Veronika Samborska},
title = {Climate Change},
journal = {Our World in Data},
year = {2024},
note = {https://ourworldindata.org/climate-change}
}
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