Are humans responsible for climate change?

Yes. The overwhelming scientific consensus, based on extensive peer-reviewed research, is that human activities are the dominant cause of the climate change observed since the mid-20th century.Yes — according to the overwhelming body of scientific evidence, human activities are the dominant cause of modern climate change.

The scientific consensus is extremely strong. Multiple independent studies have found that between 90 and 100 per cent of scientists agree that humans are responsible for climate change, with a 2021 study finding greater than 99% consensus in peer-reviewed literature — a level of certainty similar to that of the theory of evolution. The IPCC's Synthesis Report, released in March 2023, categorically confirmed that human activity is the overwhelming cause of climate change, and its assessments are written by hundreds of leading scientists with contributions from thousands of experts, endorsed by every government in the world.

What's causing it: Human activities are causing climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas, which creates a blanket of pollution trapping the sun's heat on Earth and raising global temperatures. The IPCC's most recent major assessment went further than ever before: humans have contributed to 1.07°C of the observed warming between 1850-1900 and 2010-19, and since the total observed warming over the same period is 1.06°C, this means humans have caused 100% of the long-term global warming to date.

Natural factors don't explain it. Natural changes in the sun's activity or large volcanic eruptions have caused ancient shifts in Earth's temperatures and weather patterns, but over the last 200 years, these natural causes have not significantly affected global temperatures.

Major scientific bodies agree: Organizations like NASA note that it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century, and multiple lines of evidence indicate that human influences have had an increasingly dominant effect on global climate warming. Similarly, the Geological Society of America concurs with assessments from the National Academies of Science, the IPCC, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program that human activities—mainly greenhouse-gas emissions—are the dominant cause of rapid warming since the middle 1900s.

This conclusion is based on converging evidence: rising atmospheric CO2 and methane tracked to fossil fuel combustion and agriculture, global mean surface temperature increases, ocean heat content rise, and cryosphere loss.

In short, this isn't a matter of scientific debate — it's one of the most robust findings in modern science.