How do we track a changing climate? Among all the charts on our site, the one here reaches further back in time than almost any other: the concentration of CO₂ in Earth’s atmosphere over the last 800,000 years.

Mosquitoes spread malaria. Humans let it continue. youtu.be/BJYfSfh7eWs @givingwhatwecan.bsky.social

Environmentalists, climate scientists and economists disagree about many things. But they tend to agree on one thing: those who emit greenhouse gases should pay for the damage they cause. In this new article, we looked at how much carbon price people are actually paying.

✍️ New article: “How much are people across the world paying for their carbon emissions?” Around 30% of the world’s CO₂ emissions are covered by a carbon price, through either a tax or a trading scheme.

China added a Germany-sized electricity grid last year— (This Data Insight was written by @hannahritchie.bsky.social and @pablorosado.com.) We’ll often see headlines quoting how many gigawatts of new solar farms or coal plants China is building.

In a world that often feels deeply polarized, it is rare to find a topic where almost everyone agrees. The treatment of farm animals is one of them. Surveys across many countries show that a strong majority of people, regardless of their diet, oppose common practices in animal agriculture.

📢 We’re looking for a writer to join our team at Our World in Data! What we’re looking for is quite unique: someone who writes excellent narrative articles on large global problems, finds memorable framings to make hard ideas easier to understand, while being genuinely obsessed w/ technical details

📊 Explore updated data on electricity production in Europe— Electricity is one major part of how we use energy, alongside transport and heating.

Our colleague @pablorosado.com recently updated our charts with data on GHG emissions from the publication Jones et al. (2025), which in turn relies on data from the Global Carbon Project (GCP) and PRIMAP-hist. Visit our CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data Explorer:

The world dedicates a Poland-sized area of land to producing liquid biofuels such as bioethanol & biodiesel. Is there a more efficient way to generate energy? Putting solar panels on the land used for biofuels, e.g., would produce enough electricity for all cars and trucks worldwide to go electric.

📊 Data update: Track battery prices over the last three decades— To transition towards low-carbon energy systems, we need *low-cost* energy storage. Lithium-ion batteries are the most commonly used.

On every continent, food supplies have grown faster than the population— We just lived through the period with the fastest population growth in human history. Six decades ago, there were three billion people on our planet.

📊 Data update: We’ve updated our charts with the latest data on natural disasters. Tracking the occurrence of natural disasters can save lives by helping countries prepare for future ones. In our work on natural disasters, we visualize data from EM-DAT, the most comprehensive disaster database.

Global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels are likely to increase this year, while those from land-use change will fall

How much CO₂ can the world emit while limiting global temperature rise?

Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the main drivers of recent climate change.

Greece is turning its back on coal and replacing it with solar and wind

If you're over 30, you're older than most people in the world

Air pollution kills millions each year. But where does it come from? In our new article, @hannahritchie.bsky.social and I dive into the data.

Most births in Europe are to mothers in their thirties

🌡 New on @ourworldindata.org: We added global temperature anomaly charts *coloured by El Nino / La Nina periods*. Today's "cool" years are warmer than "warm" years of the past. [New article and charts by my colleague Veronika Samborska and I: ourworldindata.org/global-tempe... ]

More land animals than ever before are slaughtered for meat. Recent estimates indicate that globally, most animals are raised on factory farms. In the US, where better data and research are available, 99% of livestock is factory-farmed.

For this year's #ProjectForAwesome I met with a few friends who are passionate about making the world better, and we made a bunch of videos about impactful charities we love. 💙 Supporting them is easy: click the links, hit "I'm not a robot" (unless you are), and then "Vote"! Here my favorite (1/4)

In 2004, it took the world a year to add a gigawatt of solar power — now it takes a day

NEW | Solar generates more EU electricity than coal for the first time in 2024 🇪🇺☀️ Renewables made up nearly HALF of the electricity mix last year, while fossil power fell to a historic low ⚡ ember-energy.org/lat...

Europeans consume more milk and dairy products than in other regions

The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. All three statements are true at the same time. Understanding this is key to solving big global problems. We believe data & research can help us understand both the problems we face & the progress that’s possible. 🧵

We're just a bunch of humans. Of more than 100 billion other humans who've ever lived. Orbiting a star among more than 100 billion other stars in the galaxy. Lurking in a galaxy among more than 100 billion other galaxies in the Universe.