This module addresses the question, “what are we adapting to?” It provides participants with a basic understanding of climate change science (drivers, changes and impacts) and an overview of how we are responding to climate change at the global level (policies, actions and prospects). It consists of the following three sessions, each of which includes a number of short interactive exercises. Sources are provided throughout the module, with links to further information.

I. Historical warming and its drivers

• Drivers of climate change and variability over different timescales
• Long-term changes in the Earth’s temperature
• The greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases
• Anthropogenic global warming since the pre-industrial period
• Attribution of warming to human activity
• Current warming and recent acceleration

II. Policy contexts and progress

• The UNFCCC, COPs and the Paris Agreement
• The Paris Temperature Goals
• Prospects for meeting the Paris temperature goals
• NDCs and the emissions gap
• The Global Goal on Adaptation
• Other key global governance mechanisms including climate funds

III. Future warming and climate change impacts

• Warming over the next few decades
• Climate scenarios, projections and warming to 2100
• Warming beyond 2100
• Escalating climate hazards and impacts
• Tipping points and large climate risks
• Climate change as failure of policy and imagination
• The role of power, denial and predatory delay

This is the first of five modules in our Adapting to Climate Change course and the first of two modules in the longer version of our Adaptation Literacy course.