The Earth is warming faster than at any time in human history, and scientists agree that people are the main cause. Burning coal, oil and gas releases greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, changing weather patterns, melting ice and raising sea levels. Here are 25 facts about climate change and global warming, and what is being done about it.
1Global warming and climate change are not quite the same thing.
Global warming means the rise in the Earth’s average surface temperature. Climate change is the wider term, covering everything that warming causes, such as changes to rainfall, droughts, storms, ice and sea levels.
2The greenhouse effect keeps us alive.
Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour trap some of the Sun’s heat, like a blanket around the planet. Without this natural greenhouse effect, the Earth’s average temperature would be around -18°C instead of about 15°C. The problem is that we are making the blanket thicker.
3Scientists worked this out in the 1800s.
In 1856 the American scientist Eunice Foote showed that carbon dioxide traps heat from sunlight. In 1859 the Irish physicist John Tyndall measured how different gases absorb heat, and in 1896 the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius calculated that burning coal could warm the planet.
4Humans are the main cause.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which brings together the work of thousands of scientists, says it is “unequivocal” that human activity has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land.
52024 was the hottest year on record.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2024 was the warmest year since records began, at about 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels. It was the first calendar year to pass the 1.5°C limit that countries hope to avoid in the long term.
6Carbon dioxide is at its highest level for at least 800,000 years.
Before the Industrial Revolution, there were about 280 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the air. Today there are more than 420 ppm, about 50% more. Air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice show that levels have not been this high for at least 800,000 years.
7One volcano in Hawaii tracks it all.
Charles Keeling began measuring carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii in 1958. The steadily rising line on his graph, known as the Keeling Curve, is one of the most famous charts in science.
8Volcanoes are not to blame.
Volcanoes do release carbon dioxide, but according to the US Geological Survey, human activities release well over 100 times more each year than all the world’s volcanoes put together.
9Coal is the biggest single source of carbon dioxide.
Burning coal, mostly to make electricity and steel, produces more carbon dioxide than any other fuel, around 40% of the world’s fossil fuel emissions.
10Cows burp a lot of methane.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, trapping about 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over 20 years, although it breaks down faster. Cattle and other livestock release it mainly by burping as they digest grass, and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that livestock produce about 14.5% of all greenhouse gases caused by people.
11Cutting down forests adds to warming.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they are burned or cleared. Deforestation and other changes to land use cause around a tenth of human greenhouse gas emissions.
12China emits the most, but Americans emit more each.
China is now the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, producing around 30% of the global total. But the average person in the United States is responsible for more than one and a half times as much as the average person in China.
13Sea levels have risen by more than 20 cm since 1900.
Seas are rising because warmer water expands and because melting glaciers and ice sheets add more water to the oceans. The rate of rise has more than doubled since the 1990s, putting low-lying countries such as Bangladesh, the Maldives and Tuvalu at particular risk.
14Glacier National Park has lost most of its glaciers.
There were around 150 glaciers in what is now Glacier National Park in Montana in the mid-1800s. By 2015, only 26 were still large enough to count as active glaciers.
15Arctic sea ice is shrinking fast.
Since satellite records began in 1979, the area of Arctic sea ice left at the end of each summer has shrunk by around 12% per decade. Less ice has opened up the Northwest Passage, the sea route over the top of North America, to more ships in summer.
16Most of the world’s coral reefs have been hit by bleaching.
When the sea gets too warm, corals expel the algae that live in them and turn white. A global bleaching event in 1998 killed around 16% of the world’s coral. The fourth global bleaching event, which began in 2023, has affected more than 80% of the world’s reefs.
17The golden toad may have been an early victim.
The bright orange golden toad lived only in a small area of cloud forest in Costa Rica. It was last seen in 1989 and was declared extinct in 2004. Scientists believe unusually warm, dry weather and a deadly fungal disease combined to wipe it out.
18Spring is arriving earlier.
A 2022 study of more than 400,000 records found that plants in the UK are now flowering about a month earlier on average than they did before 1986. Many birds and insects are also changing when they breed and migrate.
19The UK hit 40°C for the first time in 2022.
On 19 July 2022 a temperature of 40.3°C was recorded at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, the highest ever measured in the UK. The Met Office says heat like this would have been almost impossible without climate change.
20Climate change affects our health.
The World Health Organization expects climate change to cause around 250,000 extra deaths a year between 2030 and 2050, from heat, malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea. Researchers estimate that more than 60,000 people died from heat in Europe in the summer of 2022.
21Ocean currents could change Europe’s weather.
A system of Atlantic currents, which includes the Gulf Stream, carries warm water north and helps keep Britain mild. Scientists have found signs that it is weakening. A collapse would bring much colder winters to north-west Europe, although scientists disagree on how likely that is this century.
22Almost every country has signed up to limit warming.
Under the Paris Agreement of 2015, countries agreed to keep warming well below 2°C and to try to limit it to 1.5°C. Each country sets its own targets for cutting emissions and is expected to make them tougher over time.
23The UK was the first country to put a climate target into law.
The Climate Change Act 2008 made the UK the first country to set legally binding limits on its emissions. In 2019 it became the first major economy to make reaching net zero by 2050 a legal requirement.
24Britain no longer burns coal for electricity.
The UK’s last coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, closed on 30 September 2024, ending more than 140 years of coal power. The UK was the first G7 country to stop using coal for electricity.
25Clean energy is growing quickly.
Solar and wind power are now the cheapest ways to make new electricity in most of the world. The energy think tank Ember found that in the first half of 2025, renewables produced more of the world’s electricity than coal for the first time. In the UK, new petrol and diesel cars are due to stop being sold from 2030.
FAQs about climate change and global warming
What is the main cause of climate change?
Burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, which releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.
Is global warming the same as climate change?
Not exactly. Global warming is the rise in average temperatures. Climate change includes all the effects of that warming, such as changing rainfall, rising seas and more extreme weather.
Can we stop climate change?
Some warming is already locked in, but the more quickly emissions fall, the less the world will warm. Scientists say that warming will stop rising once the world reaches net zero carbon dioxide emissions.
What does net zero mean?
Net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions as close to zero as possible, and balancing any that remain by removing the same amount from the atmosphere, for example by planting forests.
Sources and further reading
- Met Office: what is climate change?
- IPCC: Sixth Assessment Report, Synthesis Report
- World Meteorological Organization
- NASA: climate change
Explore more: facts about the Earth.
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