Navigating climate change statistics
Climate change is one of greatest challenges of our time and having the right data — accessible to all of us — is a must. We’re lucky that there is a wealth of data out there but navigating it is no mean feat. With this in mind, the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) Climate Change and Net Zero Task Force has created a guide to help point to some of the key data on climate change while also highlighting some of the current gaps.
Climate change statistics can cover a wide range of topics, from changes in maximum temperatures to greenhouse gas emissions and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Like many, we’ve often found ourselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data out there, both in the UK and internationally. This is why we created this new guide — to help people better understand where to find climate data and how to make sense of it.
The task force established in 2023, is made up of members of the RSS with a background, interest and expertise in all things climate data. So far, we’ve produced explainers on the 1.5°C global warming target and the real-world data behind extreme weather events.
This new guide points to the government bodies that publish “official statistics”, such as the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero — which at the time of writing has a staggering 333 different statistical releases — and the Office for National Statistics, plus other sources such as the Met Office and numerous open data sets.
Looking at the release calendar links in the guide can give you a helpful steer on the types of statistics being published in the UK — and going in with an idea of what you’re looking for will help narrow it down. There are also several international organisations publishing global data, including the World Meteorological Organization and the UN Environment Programme.
While there is a lot of data available, there are some gaps.
For example, there is a lack of data on adaptation — what we’re doing to minimise the impact of climate change. This is needed if we’re going to understand the scale and effectiveness of how the problem is being tackled.
Something we’ve been calling for at the RSS, is ‘a public statistics approach’, which means not just thinking about what data is of use to government but what is needed by wider society to answer pressing issues. Climate change is one of the areas where we feel this approach is most needed. Given the urgency of the issue, UK official statistical reports must look to draw on a wider range of data and fill some of the gaps.
While navigating climate change data is undoubtedly a challenge, what’s clear is that access to relevant, reliable and authoritative data is essential for understanding and tackling climate change. I hope the guide will be a useful resource.
For any comments, corrections or suggested additions please email policy@rss.org.uk
About the author
Paul Allin is Honorary Officer for Public Statistics at the Royal Statistical Society, as well as a member of its Climate Change and Net Zero Task Force.
He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London.
