Climate change is an existential threat and provides an immense challenge for humanity. A better understanding of all its aspects, through monitoring, modelling, analysis and reporting, is crucial to decide on the best course of action.

This document presents a set of core internationally comparable climate change-related indicators and statistics, developed by a dedicated UNECE Task Force established by the Conference of European Statisticians (CES). This indicator set (the CES Indicator Set) was endorsed in 2020 by the Heads of national statistical offices of more than 60 CES member countries. 

The CES Indicator Set provides the foundation for developing national sets of climate change-related indicators intended to show the big picture of climate change-related issues, address the most relevant current policy questions and help meet upcoming information needs. It includes 44 indicators covering climate change drivers, emissions, climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation. It also proposes corresponding contextual and operational indicators, helping interpret the core set in the national and global context and provide more details according to national circumstances and priorities. The selection of indicators followed a careful vetting process based on the criteria of policy relevance, methodological soundness and data availability described in the document. The CES Indicator Set is the recommended set of climate change-related indicators to be compiled and published in the CES member countries.

This document is accompanied by “Implementation Guidelines for the CES Set of Core Climate Change-Related Indicators and Statistics” and detailed information on individual indicators in the metadata sheets.