Scientists detect a sharp acceleration in global warming
A new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research confirms that the rate of global warming has significantly accelerated since 2015. Researchers isolated long-term trends from natural climate variability to reach this conclusion.
Why it matters
This provides statistically significant evidence that the pace of climate change is increasing, which is critical for global policy and climate modeling.
Global warming has sped up since around 2015, according to a new analysis from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). After removing the effects of natural temperature swings, researchers found the first statistically significant evidence that the planet's long-term warming rate is accelerating.
Over the past decade, global temperatures have risen at an estimated pace of about 0.35 C per decade, depending on the dataset used. By comparison, the average warming rate from 1970 to 2015 was just under 0.2 C per decade. The recent pace is higher than that of any previous decade since instrumental temperature records began in 1880.
Scientists Isolate the Long-Term Warming Signal
"We can now demonstrate a strong and statistically significant acceleration of global warming since around 2015," says Grant Foster, a US statistics expert and co-author of the study, which was published today in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters .
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