WMO Provisional report on the state of the global climate 2020

The global climate system is complex.

In order to unpack such complexity, the WMO Statement of the Climate uses seven Global Climate Indicators to describe the changing climate—providing a broad view of the climate at a global scale. They are used to monitor the domains most relevant to climate change, including the composition of the atmosphere, the energy changes that arise from the accumulation of greenhouse gases and other factors, as well as the responses of land, oceans, and ice.

The report, which is based on contributions of dozens of international organizations and experts, shows how high-impact events including extreme heat, wildfires, and floods, as well as the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, affected millions of people, compounding threats to human health and security and economic stability posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.