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The world is about 1C warmer than before widespread industrialisation, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Across the globe, the average sea level increased by 3.6mm per year between 2005 and 2015. Most of this change due to the increases in volume of water as it heats up.

However, melting ice is now the main reason for rising sea levels. As most glaciers in temperate regions of the world are withdrawing. Satellite records show a dramatic decline in Arctic sea-ice since 1979. The Greenland Ice Sheet has experienced record melting in recent years.

The effects of a changing climate can also be seen in vegetation and animals. These include earlier flowering and fruiting times for plants and changes in the territories and habitats of animals.

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The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth’s Surface. The surface traps some of the sun energy. Some of that energy radiates into back to space. While the rest is absorbed by greenhouse gases and then re-emitted in all directions within the Earth’s surface. This heats both the lower atmosphere and the surface of the planet. Without this effect, the Earth would be about 30C colder and hostile to life.

Scientists believe that humanity is adding to the natural greenhouse effect, with the gases released from industries and agriculture, trapping more energy and increasing the temperature.

This is known as climate change or global warming.

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The two main greenhouse gasses that are causing the most harm are water vapor and carbon dioxide. Water Vapor only remains in the atmosphere for a few days compared to CO2  that lasts longer and will take 100 years to go back to pre-industrial levels and only so much can be soaked up by natural reservoirs such as the oceans.

Many man made emissions of CO2 come from burning fossil fuels. When carbon-absorbing forests are cut down and left to rot, or burned, that stored CO2 is released, adding to global warming.

Other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide are also released through human activities but they are less abundant than carbon dioxide.

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The change in the global surface temperature between 1850 and the end of the 21st Century is likely to exceed 1.5C which most simulations suggest. The WMO says that if the current warming continues, temperatures could rise 3-5C by the end of this century. Temperature rises of 2C had seen as a  gateway to dangerous warming. Recently, scientists and policymakers have argued that limiting temperature rises to 1.5C is safer.

An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has reported in 2018, has suggested that keeping to the 1.5C target would require "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society".

The UN is a leading political effort to help stabilise greenhouse-gas emissions. China emits more CO2 than any other country. It is followed by the US and the European Union member states, but has stated that emissions per person, are much greater.

But even if we now cut down greenhouse-gas emissions dramatically, scientists say the effects will still continue. Large bodies of water and ice can take hundreds of years to respond to changes in temperature. And it takes CO2 decades to be removed from the atmosphere by natural means.

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There is many uncertainty about how large the impact of a changing climate will be. It could cause fresh water shortages, lack of availability to produce food, and increase the number of deaths from floods, storms and heatwaves. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme weather but linking any event to global warming is complicated. As the world warms, more water evaporates, leading to more moisture in the air. This means many areas will experience more intense rainfall or  snowfall. But drought in inland areas during hot summers is on the rise.

More flooding is expected from storms and rising sea levels, but there are likely to be very strong variations in these patterns. Poorer countries are least equipped to deal with rapid change and could suffer the most. Plant and animal extinctions are also predicted as habitats change faster than species can adapt. And the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the health of millions of people’s lives could be threatened by the increases in disease and malnutrition.

When large amounts of CO2 is released into the atmosphere, the uptake of the gas by the oceans increases. This can cause the water to become more acidic and harm coral reefs. Global warming will cause further heating which includes the release of large quantities of methane will become permafrost which is frozen soil found mainly at high latitudes will melt. Responding to climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face this century.