What is Climate Change?

Climate change is the term used to describe a long-term shift of weather patterns. The speed at which climate change is happening is one of the biggest challenges facing our world. Climate change is a significant challenge, but we can work to reduce the impact and plan to adapt.

Weather versus climate

Weather and climate mean different things. Weather is what we experience day to day such as sunny days, cold days, thunderstorms, or rain. Climate looks at weather patterns over a long period of time.

Greenhouse gases

Greenhouse gases play an important role in maintaining comfortable temperature ranges on Earth by trapping heat from the sun. Greenhouse gases in our atmosphere are natural and have changed our climate over billions of years.Since the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, fossil fuels have been burnt to power our way of life. The burning of fossil fuels releases large amounts of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere and has unnaturally impacted our climate.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regularly releases important research into climate change and its impacts.