Climate Change header
Climate Change

"No country can meet the challenge of climate change alone. Climate change carries no passport; emissions released anywhere contribute to the problem everywhere. It is a threat to lives and livelihoods everywhere. Economic stability and the security of nations are under threat. Only through the United Nations can we respond collectively to this quintessentially global issue."
(Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, 2015)

Did you know

  • Greenhouse Gas

    Greenhouse gases in our atmosphere have increased to levels unprecedented in the past 800,000 years.

  • CO2 concentration

    The global CO2 concentration increased from ~277ppm to 395ppm between 1950 and 2013,

    i.e. an increase of 43%.

  • Increase of CO2

    The largest increase of CO2 occurred between 2000-2012:

    more than in any decade in human history,

    going from 24.8 Gt CO2 to 35.1 Gt CO2.

  • Top 4 Emitters

    The Top 4 emitters in 2013 were responsible for 58% of global emissions: China 28%, the United States 14%, EU28 10%, India 7%.

  • China’s per capita emissions have surpassed those of the EU28 and are 45% above the global average; US 16.4t/p, China 7.2t/p, EU 28 6.8 t/p, World 5.0 t/p, India 1.9 t/p.

  • Nearly 30% of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, forestry and other land uses and are responsible for a nearly 38% increase in annual global carbon dioxide emissions between 1990 and 2009.

  • Restoring the soils of degraded ecosystems has the potential to store up to 3 billion tons of carbon annually. This is equivalent to storing up to 30% of annual CO2 fossil fuel emissions.

  • Climate change disrupts

    the seasonal and geographical

    patterns of migratory species.

See all news