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.
The index as a line graph
The index as a table including cumulative change
Each parameter is normalised between -100 and +100. Zero is no annual change. One hundred is the maximum-recorded annual change since 1980.
The normalised parameters are averaged. This gives the index for the year. The value for each year is added to that of the previous year to show the cumulative effect of annual change.
Datasets used for the climate-change index
Carbon dioxide
Original data
Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
Temperature
Original data
Sea level
Original data
Arctic sea ice
Original data
Snow and Ice Data center, NOAA
IGBP Climate-Change Index composite
