IGBP Climate-Change Index

Global-change trends for the public and policymakers

Launched in Copenhagen, 9 December 2009

The IGBP Climate-Change Index brings together key indicators of global change: atmospheric carbon dioxide, temperature, sea level and sea ice. It will be released annually.

• The index gives an annual snapshot of how the planet's complex systems - the ice, the oceans, the land surface and the atmosphere - are responding to the changing climate.
• The index rises steadily from 1980 - the earliest date the index has been calculated.
• The change is unequivocal, it is global, and it is in one direction.