Last updated: April 4, 2023
UN Foundation
Climate Change · The State of the Science
Created through a collaboration between the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and Globaïa, and supported by funding from the United Nations Foundation, this data visualisation presents a compelling synthesis of the most crucial findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report.
Specifically, the visualisation focuses on the Working Group I Summary for Policymakers, which outlines the Physical Science Basis of climate change. In 2014, the IPCC released additional summaries that delved into the societal impacts of climate change, as well as potential mitigation and adaptation strategies.
By effectively summarising and visually representing these key points from the IPCC’s comprehensive report, this data visualisation offers a powerful tool for increasing awareness and understanding of the urgent challenges posed by climate change, ultimately empowering policymakers and the public to make informed decisions and take necessary actions.
Translations
Observed Temperature Change — Global surface temperature anomalies highlighting the accelerating warming trend over recent decades.
Climate Projections — Future warming scenarios based on different greenhouse gas emission pathways from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.
CO2 Concentrations — Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels showing the unprecedented rise driven by fossil fuel combustion and deforestation.
Sea Level Rise — Observed and projected changes in global mean sea level, reflecting thermal expansion and ice sheet contributions.
Ocean Heat Content — The accumulation of heat energy absorbed by the world’s oceans, a key indicator of the Earth’s energy imbalance.
Arctic Sea Ice — The dramatic decline in Arctic sea ice extent, one of the most visible consequences of global warming.
The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, visualised in this project, synthesised over 9,200 peer-reviewed scientific papers -- making it one of the most extensively reviewed documents in the history of science, yet its core message can be summarised in one sentence: human influence on the climate system is unequivocal.
Earth's oceans have absorbed over 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases since the 1970s -- a thermal buffer that has temporarily slowed atmospheric warming but has driven marine heat waves, coral bleaching, and sea level rise that will persist for centuries even if emissions cease today.
The Arctic is warming at approximately three to four times the global average rate, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification, caused in part by the ice-albedo feedback: as bright, reflective ice melts, it exposes dark ocean water that absorbs more solar energy, accelerating further melting.
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations have not been this high for at least 800,000 years -- a timespan determined by analysing air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice cores -- and the current rate of CO2 increase is at least 10 times faster than at any point in those 800 millennia.
The term 'code red for humanity', used by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in response to the IPCC's 2021 report, was unprecedented in UN diplomatic language -- a deliberate departure from institutional restraint that reflected the scientific community's escalating alarm.