The climate crisis explained in 10 charts
From the seemingly inexorable increase in atmospheric CO2 to the rapid growth in green energy, we explore the data as Cop28 begins The level of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, has been rising since the Industrial Revolution and is at its highest in about 4m years. The rate of the rise is even more striking, the fastest for 66m years , with scientists saying the world is in uncharted territory. Billions of tonnes of CO 2 are still pumped into the atmosphere every year from coal, oil and gas burning. The slight reduction in 2020 as a result of coronavirus lockdowns was no more than a tiny blip , and emissions have since resumed their upward trajectory. The felling of forests for timber, beef, soy and palm oil is a big contributor to CO 2 emissions. It is also a significant cause of the annihilation of wildlife . Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and causes 25% of all global heating today. Fossil fuel extraction, cattle, rice paddies and landfills are responsible. There has been a scary surge in methane emissions since 2007, according to scientists, potentially due to wetlands heating up. The planets average temperature started to climb steadily two centuries ago and has rocketed since the second world war as consumption and population have risen. Many records were smashed in 2023 , which will be the hottest year on record. Global heating means there is more energy in the atmosphere, making extreme weather events more frequent and more intense . Sea levels are inexorably rising as ice on land melts and hotter oceans expand. Sea levels are slow to respond to global heating, so even if the temperature rise is restricted to 2C above pre-industrial levels, one in five people in the world eventually will experience their cities being submerged , from New York to London to Shanghai. As heating melts the sea ice, it reveals darker water that absorbs more of the suns heat, causing more heating one example of the vicious circles in the climate system. Scientists think the changes in the Arctic may be responsible for worsened heatwaves and floods in Eurasia and North America. Huge drops in cost have helped renewable energy become the cheapest electricity in most places and the exponential growth is expected to continue. But action and support is still required to reach the scale needed, especially in developing countries. The global fleet of electric cars and vans is still small compared with those vehicles running on fossil fuels. But sales are growing extremely quickly and tipping points for EV adoption have already been reached in several countries. Electric cars are cheaper to own and run , suggesting they will replace combustion engine vehicles. Plummeting battery costs not only increase electric car sales but can enable renewable energy to be stored while the sun is shining and the wind blows. But other technologies with longer storage duration, such as green hydrogen, will also be needed. Cop28: Can fossil fuel companies transition to clean energy? On Tuesday 5 December, 8pm-9.15pm GMT, join Damian Carrington, Christiana Figueres, Tessa Khan and Mike Coffin for a livestreamed discussion on whether fossil fuel companies can transition to clean energy. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live