The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in France in 2015. Its goal is to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The World Meteorological Organization confirmed that global temperatures in 2024 exceeded 1.5°C, making it the hottest year on record. This conclusion was reached after reviewing data from scientists in the U.K., U.S., Japan, and the EU.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks triggering far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and intense droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.
Global warming refers to the persistent rise in the average global temperature and its impacts on the planet's climate system, known as climate change.
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap the sun's heat during the day, warming the Earth's surface. At night, the surface cools, releasing heat back into the atmosphere.
The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has increased significantly over the past 100 years due to human activities, such as burning fossil fuels (like coal, oil, and gas) and clearing forests. These increases in atmospheric CO2 have negatively impacted Earth’s climate, causing the atmosphere to retain more heat than it previously did and making the planet warmer.
This process drives global warming, where the planet’s temperature increases due to an excessive amount of the sun's heat being trapped by greenhouse gases. This leads to increasingly frequent and intense droughts, storms, heatwaves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and warmer oceans.
The Scottish Government announced in April 2024 that new legislation would be introduced to establish multi-year “carbon budgets,” replacing the current annual targets. This move came in response to the Climate Change Committee’s statement a month earlier that Scotland’s 2030 climate goals were no longer credible. Climate scientist Ed Hawkins created the Warming Stripes, a striking visual representation of global temperature change. The design simplifies complex climate data, making the impact of global warming easily understandable at a glance. First introduced in 2018, the Warming Stripes have since been widely adopted by scientists, activists, and policymakers to highlight the urgency of climate action.
Some key events in the history of Global Warming:
1938: Amateur scientist Guy Callendar’ discovers proof that global temperatures are rising 1940: Global average temperature is 0.035°C 1958: Dr Charles David Keeling provides the first evidence that CO2 levels are rising 1967: Scientists create the first computer model of Earth's changing climate 1968: Dr John Mercer predicts melting ice caps 1985: British Antarctic Survey Scientists, Dr Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jon Shanklin discover Ozone hole over South Pole 1988: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is established 1994: The first climate change legislation is passed 1997: The Kyoto Protocol is adopted, the first treaty to legally bind countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 1998: Hurricane Mitch - One of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes in history, due to it's intensity was linked to unusually warm sea surface temperatures 2003: 20,000 people died after a record-breaking heatwave in Europe 2007: The Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the planet 2007: Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh killed 4,324 people 2008: Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar killed 138,366 people 2010: Drought in Somalia: Climate change made the low rainfall more likely and intense, and rising temperatures made the drought worse. This drought killed an estimated 258,000 people. 2010: Heatwave in Russia - A persistent heatwave caused record temperatures, widespread wildfires, and 56,000 deaths. 2013: Typhoon Haiyan - One of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, Haiyan’s intensity was fuelled by abnormally warm ocean waters in the Pacific 2015: The Paris Agreement is adopted by nearly 200 countries 2015: Hurricane Season (Harvey, Irma, Maira) -Warm sea surface temperatures intensified these hurricanes, which caused catastrophic flooding and damage 2015: Heatwave in France killed 3,275 people 2019: The UK becomes the first country to pass a net zero emissions law 2019: The global average temperature was 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, making it likely the second or third warmest year on record. 2020: Cyclone Amphan was the strongest storm ever to hit the Bay of Bengal 2020: The average temperature for the decade 2011–2020 was the warmest on record, with a temperature 1.48°F above the 20th century average 2022 and 2023: Heatwaves in Europe, climate change made the high temperatures in these heatwaves more likely. In 2022, 53,542 people died, and in 2023, 37,129 people died. 2023: The average surface temperature was the warmest on record since 1880 2024: The global temperature was more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for 11 months of the year. The combined average temperature for 2023 and 2024 is 1.54°C above pre-industrial levels
POSTER RESOURCES //
To find out more about this topic please visit the following websites which were used to create this poster:
SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT //
Stepping up action to net zero https://www.gov.scot/news/stepping-up-action-to-net-zero/#:~:text=In%20light%20of%20the%20UK,plant%2C%20workforce%20and%20local%20community
United Nations: Secretary-General's Statement on Official Confirmation of 2024 as the Hottest Year www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2025-01-10/secretary-generals-statement-official-confirmation-of-2024-the-hottest-year#:~:text=Today's%20assessment%20from%20the%20World,C%20above%20pre%2Dindustrial%20levels