Climate change critical transition indicators

🌍❄️ A powerful new visualization from NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration shows the extent of global sea ice—tracking #Arctic and #Antarctic coverage from November 1978 to March 2025. On February 12, 2025, the combined sea ice extent reached a record low of just 15.7 million square kilometers. This is the lowest value recorded in over 46 years of satellite observation. 📉 What does this mean? Sea ice is one of the most sensitive indicators of #climatechange. Unlike melting land ice, its loss doesn’t directly contribute to sea level rise—but it sets off powerful ripple effects: 🌡️ Accelerated warming: Sea ice reflects sunlight. As it melts, darker ocean water absorbs more heat, further amplifying global warming—a feedback loop known as the albedo effect. 🌊 Disrupted weather patterns: Changes in Arctic ice can destabilize the jet stream, contributing to extreme weather across the Northern Hemisphere, from floods to heatwaves. 🧊 Ecosystem disruption: Polar species—like krill, seals, and polar bears—depend on sea ice for survival. Its loss threatens biodiversity and the delicate balance of polar ecosystems. 🌐 A global problem: Though far from our daily lives, what happens in the Arctic and Antarctic profoundly affects all of us—from food security to economic stability. 🔍 What can we do about it? While the challenge is immense, there are clear paths forward: ✅ Accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels: Reducing CO₂ and methane emissions is critical to slow warming and stabilize the cryosphere. ✅ Invest in climate adaptation: Coastal communities need infrastructure, early warning systems, and resilience strategies to cope with rising seas and climate volatility. ✅ Strengthen global cooperation: From the Paris Agreement to local climate policies, we need coordinated action that puts climate science at the heart of decision-making. ✅ Support science and innovation: Monitoring tools like satellite imagery, AI-based modeling, and earth system observation are vital to guide climate solutions. ✅ Empower individuals and institutions: Each of us—whether in government, business, or civil society—has a role in shaping a climate-resilient future. 🌐 The melting poles are not a distant concern. They are today’s urgent signal—one we must answer with bold action, informed by science and driven by global solidarity. #ClimateScience #SeaIce #Arctic #Antarctic #ClimateCrisis #GlobalWarming #Sustainability #DataForClimateAction #PolarRegions #UNSDG #NatureBasedSolutions #NetZero https://nsidc.org/home

We are in a race between climate and economic tipping points. 2025 may be the year it tips towards transition. According to a new analysis from RMI, we may now be past peak fossil fuel emissions. Over half the global population has already peaked in demand for gasoline and residential gas. More than half of countries are now over 5 years beyond their fossil electricity peak. This is both good for the climate and a powerful economic signal: -Solar costs dropped 35% in 2024, triggering ~600 GW in global deployment. -EV battery prices fell 20%, bringing total cost of ownership below fossil vehicles in many regions. -For electricity investments, renewables outpaced fossil fuels 10 to 1. -Asia is leading the charge, with nearly $1 TN in clean energy investment from China, with India up 26% in clean electricity production, and South Korea cutting fossil generation by 15%. Yet, we’re not there yet. The report points out a key blind spot: energy efficiency. Despite being one of the fastest, lowest-cost routes to cutting emissions, it remains under-prioritized. Investors, policymakers, and institutions need to be thinking about: -Where are the next exponential opportunities? -Which regions and sectors are set to leapfrog? -And how do we direct capital, not just to clean supply, but to systems-level transformation? 📉 Fossil fuels are in structural decline. 📈 Clean energy is accelerating. ⏳ The window for smart, catalytic investment is now. Read the full RMI piece here: https://lnkd.in/epxTUt4g Let’s double down on what’s working and stay laser-focused on what still needs to scale. #EnergyTransition #CleanEnergy #ClimateFinance #NetZero #SustainableInvesting #GreenEconomy #Decarbonization #ClimateLeadership #SystemChange #Renewables #JustTransition #FutureOfEnergy #SustainabilityStrategy #ESG #TransitionRisk

Indicators of Global #ClimateChange 2023: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and #human #influence Abstract: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments are the trusted source of #scientific #evidence for climate negotiations taking place under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Evidence-based decision-making needs to be informed by up-to-date and timely #information on key #indicators of the state of the climate system and of the human influence on the global climate system. However, successive IPCC reports are published at intervals of 5–10 years, creating potential for an information gap between report cycles We follow methods as close as possible to those used in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group One (WGI) report. We compile monitoring datasets to produce estimates for key climate indicators related to forcing of the climate system: emissions of greenhouse gases and short-lived climate forcers, greenhouse gas concentrations, radiative forcing, the Earth's energy imbalance, surface temperature changes, warming attributed to human activities, the remaining #carbon budget, and estimates of global #temperature extremes. The purpose of this effort, grounded in an open-data, open-science approach, is to make annually updated reliable global climate indicators available in the public domain As they are traceable to IPCC report methods, they can be trusted by all parties involved in UNFCCC negotiations and help convey wider understanding of the latest knowledge of the climate system and its direction of travel The indicators show that, for the 2014–2023 decade average, observed warming was 1.19 [1.06 to 1.30] °C, of which 1.19 [1.0 to 1.4] °C was human-induced. For the single-year average, human-induced warming reached 1.31 [1.1 to 1.7] °C in 2023 relative to 1850–1900. The best estimate is below the 2023-observed warming record of 1.43 [1.32 to 1.53] °C, indicating a substantial contribution of internal variability in the 2023 record. Human-induced #warming has been increasing at a rate that is unprecedented in the instrumental record, reaching 0.26 [0.2–0.4] °C per decade over 2014–2023 This high rate of warming is caused by a combination of net greenhouse gas emissions being at a persistent high of 53±5.4 Gt CO2e yr−1 over the last decade, as well as reductions in the strength of aerosol cooling. Despite this, there is evidence that the rate of increase in CO2 emissions over the last decade has slowed compared to the 2000s, and depending on societal choices, a continued series of these annual updates over the critical 2020s decade could track a change of direction for some of the indicators presented here Please read the full article!