Climate change explainers 

The RSS has launched a series of explainers on the statistics and data underpinning our understanding of climate change, led by the RSS Climate Change and Net Zero Task Force. 

Explainers: 

• The 1.5°C global mean warming target: the first set of explainers focuses on the 1.5°C global mean warming target, answering questions such as: how is 1.5°C warming defined? What are the sources of uncertainty? What are the local implications of a 1.5°C increase? 

• Extreme weather: the second set of explainers focusses on extreme events, answering questions including: what is an extreme weather or climate event? Why is there so much concern over them? This set of explainers uses real-world data from Heathrow (London, UK), to illustrate why extremes are so sensitive to (seemingly small) changes in global warming, and to demonstrate how global warming impacts the ‘1 in 100 year event’. 

The explainers are produced by the RSS Climate Change and Net Zero Task Force, which is co-chaired by RSS President Andrew Garrett and David Stephenson, Professor of Statistical Climatology. The task force was established in 2023 by RSS President Andrew Garrett to bring together collective RSS expertise on climate change and environmental issues.