We felt people outside global-change research were not clear about the scale of changes scientists are witnessing. The index is a response to these concerns.

Sybil Seitzinger, executive director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), a research network of 10,000 scientists, on the group’s move to take four key indicators to develop the world's first climate change index as a useful tool for policy-makers. It was launched at the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen, where talks remain deadlocked, with developed and developing nations at odds over who should cut emissions, how deep the cuts should be, and how much aid should go to poor countries. The four indicators are sea level rise, global temperature, Arctic sea ice melt and the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, IRIN reports. The decision to develop the index was prompted by asking: "What if the complexity of the Earth's climate were distilled down to one number, in the same way that the Dow Jones Index [which tracks targeted stock market activity] condenses volumes of data into a single figure? What then would be the general trend?" The index, to be updated annually, uses data starting from 1980 to provide an annual snapshot of how the planet's systems – ice, oceans, land surface and atmosphere - have been reacting to a changing climate. According to Seitzinger, the index rises steadily from 1980, showing that the planet is warming. The climate change index was the first step, Seitzinger told IRIN. The IGBP intends including more variables, such as precipitation. "Maybe we could do a separate index on each variable, or even regional or country-specific indices – we are exploring these options and taking feedback."

Source: DEVEX: Global Development Briefing