What is climate change? A really simple guide

Human activities are causing world temperatures to rise, posing serious threats to people and nature.

Things are likely to worsen in the coming decades, but scientists argue urgent action can still limit the worst effects of climate change.

What is climate change?

Climate change is the long-term shift in the Earth’s average temperatures and weather conditions.

The world has been warming up quickly over the past 100 years or so. As a result, weather patterns are changing.

Between 2015 and 2024, global temperatures were on average around 1.28C above those of the late 19th Century, according to the European Copernicus climate service.

Since the 1980s, each decade has been warmer than the previous one, the UK Met Office says.

The year 2024 was the world’s hottest on record, with climate change mainly responsible for the high temperatures.

It was also the first calendar year to surpass 1.5C of warming compared to pre-industrial levels, according to Copernicus.

How are humans causing climate change?

The climate has changed naturally throughout the Earth’s history.

But natural causes cannot explain the particularly rapid warming seen over the last century, according to the UN’s climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).