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