A really simple guide to climate change

Human activities, particularly burning coal, oil and gas, are driving rapid global warming and changing weather patterns. The article explains that climate change is already increasing extreme heat and other damaging impacts, while urgent action could still limit the worst consequences.

Each decade since the 1980s has been warmer than the one before it, and 2024 was the hottest year on record, briefly exceeding 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Fossil fuel use has raised atmospheric carbon dioxide by more than 50% since the Industrial Revolution; further warming could worsen risks to food security, health and wildlife, and may push vulnerable parts of the climate system past irreversible tipping points.