Abstract

The Royal Statistical Society (RSS)‘s Climate Change and Net Zero Task Force (CCTF) was established in 2023 to bring together collective RSS expertise on climate change and environmental issues.

With statistics and data science at the forefront of climate change in terms of forecasting global average temperatures, or attributing extreme events to human activity and with large, complex datasets often involved, the RSS is well-positioned to contribute to informing discussions.

The task force began their work by developing a series of explainers to increase public understanding around the statistical aspects of climate change. So far , four have been published on topics including the 1.5°C global mean warming target and extreme weather, climate change attribution and how local and global warming are related.
The CCTF has also produced a guide to UK official statistics on climate change.