Rowdy Ryan

Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the main drivers of recent climate change. In the chart, we see the global average temperature relative to a baseline, which is the average between 1861 and 1890. This gives us an estimate of the temperature increase compared to “pre-industrial” times. Average global temperatures have risen by approximately 1.3 °C since then — as a measure of *climate*, which is the average over decades. This climate measure is what the Paris Agreement target of 1.5°C refers to, for example. However, temperatures in the last couple years have been closer to 1.5 °C. 2024, for example, was the warmest year on record and the first year that was more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperatures. Regardless of whether we look at long-term averages or shorter-term fluctuations, the world is warming. This warming has not been equally distributed across the world. The Northern Hemisphere has warmed more than the Southern Hemisphere. In some regions, temperatures have risen by more than 5 °C. We recently updated the data in a number of our charts on climate change, which we do every two months. These updates are led by Pablo Rosado on our team.