Tropical Storm Ophelia takes on New York

Parts of New York City are underwater as record rains have led to life-threatening flooding. Brooklyn received more than a month's worth of rain within three hours. By nightfall on Friday 29 September, Queens recorded... READ MORE

Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Declared

The National Snow and Ice Data Center has just announced that the 2023 minimum Arctic sea ice extent occurred on 19 September and is the 6th lowest on record.... READ MORE

The World Above 1.5°C: Flooding Disasters from Libya to Hong Kong

Global temperatures have slightly decreased after a  summer with 36 consecutive days above any previous record, a phenomenon not seen in at least 125,000 years. However, the two consecutive months above 1.5C provided a... READ MORE

Polar Tipping Points Hub in WEF Global Collaboration Village

This week, the Polar Tipping Points Hub was launched in the Global Collaboration Village, a metaverse built by the World Economic Forum in partnership with Accenture and Microsoft, with scientific support from Arctic... READ MORE

Arctic Basecamp Plays Significant Role in New Polar Metaverse by World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum (WEF) launched the Polar Tipping Points Hub, a groundbreaking virtual reality experience in collaboration with Accenture and Microsoft, yesterday at UN Climate Week in New York... READ MORE

COUNTDOWN

CO2 Budget Depletion

Is your country

Climate
vulnerable?

Climate Vulnerability is used to describe economies and ecosystems that are highly vulnerable to warming and the many other complex impacts from climate change. Frequently, the most vulnerable countries are those who have far lower historically-integrated emissions but are the most affected. This disparity is now known as climate injustice.

IN OTHER LANGUAGES

What can you do?

Take a look at our RESOURCES to find out more or explore our GLOBE.

Take our three step TAKE ACTION challenge

Rapid Arctic warming and melt are amplifying existing threats to Arctic communities, as well climate-vulnerable areas around the world.

The Arctic itself is also a climate vulnerable region, affected first and worst by climate change. To find out how rapid Arctic warming is affecting Arctic communities please see our SDG pages where we highlight how each of the SDG issues is experienced in the Arctic.

Here we look at the global risks of Arctic change and present regional case studies (linked below) which highlight major issues affecting some of the most climate vulnerable regions around the world, showing how the influence of a warming Arctic far exceeds its geography.

Regional STORIES

How does the Arctic increase Global Risks?

The Arctic has warmed four times faster than the global average since 1979 (Rantananen et al., 2022).

This rate, reaching seven times faster in parts of the Eurasian Arctic, is caused by Arctic amplification. While Arctic amplification is significantly driven by the loss of sea ice and northern hemisphere snow cover, Arctic amplification increases ice sheet melt, accelerating sea level rise, as well as further hastening sea ice and northern hemisphere snow cover losses, contributing to the Arctic wildfire seasons and permafrost thaw. Arctic warming is increasing carbon emissions from fire and permafrost degradation, a process not well captured by global climate models

Want to know more about how Arctic amplification and other Arctic change is intensifying global risks? Explore our Global Risks page.

ARCTIC RISK INDICATORS

The following gauges show up-to-date data regarding key indicators in the Arctic. These indicators clearly point to the crisis at hand.

Greenland rate of ice loss
13 million l/s
on average
13 million tonnes/s
on average
Arctic Sea Ice Extent
2,404,499 km²
below 1981-2010 average on 01-Oct-2023
928,377 mi²
below 1981-2010 average on 01-Oct-2023
Arctic Amplification
4 times
faster than global average
Arctic 66N+ Wildfire emissions
24,925.36 megatonnes CO₂e
CO₂e emissions in 2023 so far
Arctic Air Quality (PM2.5)
4.07 microgram per cubic meter
on 02-Oct-2023
Global mean Sea Level
3.4mm/year
since 1993