Understanding Climate Change
It’s important we understand how our world works and how our climate is changing.
The Met Office is the lead science advisor to Climate Week. In this role it will be helping people to understand more about our climate system and how it is changing. Its scientists will be explaining the science of climate change and helping to answer some of your fundamental questions.
- What is climate?
- What is climate change?
- How has our climate changed?
- How may it change in the future?
- Adapting to climate change.
- More information and frequently asked questions.
What is climate?
To understand climate change, it’s important to recognise the difference between weather and climate. The Met Office explains more in the following clip.
What is climate change?
Over the course of the last century there has been an unusual increase in the average global temperature, accompanied by changes in extremes of weather. What aspects of our climate are changing and what is causing these changes?
How has our climate changed?
There is a wide range of evidence which indicates our climate is warming, from increasing temperatures to sea-level rise. This Met Office page has more information.
How may it change in the future?
The spinning globes below show predicted temperature rise to 2100. The left hand globe shows global temperatures if we continue emissions at the current rate. The right hand globe shows temperatures with a peak in emissions and a gradual decline.
Find out about the projections of how the climate might change in the future and the impacts of future climate change by visiting the Met Office’s guide on future scenarios.
Adapting to climate change.
Many aspects of human society are sensitive to weather and climate. As the climate changes, different impacts are predicted; and understanding them is important so societies can adapt accordingly. The Thames Estuary 2100 project is one example that used climate projections to assess whether changes to London’s flood defences were needed.
More information and frequently asked questions:
The climate section on the Met Office website provides information and resources to help you understand more about our climate, climate science and climate change.
You can visit the Met Office’s Climate Change frequently asked questions for more detailed answers or ask the Met Office climate experts a question through the Met Office / OPAL Climate Change website.
