Experts have calculated the Earth has warmed more over the last 100 to 150 years following the start of the Industrial Revolution than it did in the previous thousand thanks to human amplification of the greenhouse effect - increasing the amount of energy from the sun that is retained as heat in our atmosphere and warming the planet at an alarming rate.
Climate impacts increasingly challenge the adaptive capacity of society and ecosystems. As a result, sustainable development goals such as zero poverty and zero hunger as well as life itself on Earth will be compromised.
The target
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the voice of thousands of scientists and experts around the world - presented world leaders with an essential target in 2018; one they believe is a minimum to mitigate the environmental and social consequences of a warming climate. That target is to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees centigrade.
The world needs to reduce emissions by an estimated 7.6 percent annually by 2030 before it reaches a point of no return where climate change causes negative feedback loops - like melting Arctic tundra releasing huge quantities of stored greenhouses gases such as methane - that exponentially exacerbate the problem. That point is just 10 years away.
To give us an idea of what a 7.6 percent drop in carbon emissions looks like, the Global Carbon Project estimates that in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding lockdown in much of the world, emissions in 2020 could be down seven percent - still shy of the 7.6 percent target despite the huge upheaval to modern daily life worldwide.
You might be asking why with all this knowledge in hand, everything humanly possible isn't being done to reach this target. The truth is the antagonists in this story, the processes that cause most of the human made damage, are so heavily integrated into global economy and society that making the changes needed and at the speed they're required is an extremely challenging and disruptive task for civilization as we know it.
With the consequences of inaction being far more severe, disruptive consequences call for disruptive change, but what can we be doing to play our part.
What can we do?
One way that we as individuals can help that to happen is with our food choices, like reducing the amount of meat in our diets and using our power as consumers to steer the industry into a more sustainable direction.
Food and the systems around that production and transportation contribute between 21 and 37 percent of all global greenhouse emissions every year, contributing significantly to deforestation and biodiversity loss to a further detrimental factor in the fight against climate change.
We can also to be more aware of the carbon footprint of the food we buy and opting for more local seasonal produce, made using sustainable practices.
Currently, around a third of the food produced in the world annually for human consumption, approximately 1.3 billion tonnes ends up lost or wasted. That waste is found across the lifecycle of the food we eat.
In developing countries, waste is more due to poor harvests, supply chain and infrastructure issues. In medium to high income countries, the behaviour of consumers plays a much bigger part in food waste - producing, buying and eating more than we need - in turn, throwing more away.
A shocking example of how a single food sector can impact climate change comes with the farming of livestock.
If you break down what makes up those annual food related emissions, you'll see livestock contributes nearly 65 percent of agriculture's greenhouse gases, and 78 percent of its methane emissions.
This is due mainly to the amount of land that's needed not just for the animals themselves, but for the food grown to feed them.
The two together take up more than ever 80 percent of global farmland yet produced less than 20 percent of the world's supply of calories.
The livestock sector is also one of the key drivers of land use change, with 13 billion hectares of forest area lost due to land conversion for both food and livestock feed crop production every year. These are forests that help pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and mitigate climate change.
With a growing population to feed and agricultural yield under threat as a result of a warming planet, if the world is to make an impact on the climate crisis, the food system needs to be radically reshaped to be more efficient and sustainable.
Exhausting
Cars are an essential part of the modern-day lifestyle, with the automotive industry contributing significantly to the global economy. For more than a few decades, it's been known that the emissions from transport aren't helping us in the battle against climate change in the UK and in the US.
Transportation is responsible for emitting more greenhouse gas than any other sector, including agriculture, and electricity production. Globally, transport makes up close to a quarter of all CO2 emissions.
Electric dream
With the climate change targets set, and the consequences of not reaching them known, big shifts in the automotive industry are being made to lessen the impact of private cars and electric revolution has begun.
How much of a difference can that make? A study from the University of Cambridge published earlier this year, stated that driving an electric car is better for the climate than conventional petrol and diesel cars in 95% of the world, with average lifetime emissions up to 70% lower than fossil fuel powered cars.
Studies and information like this are impacting major policy throughout the world. In Europe, legislation has been set to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars in some countries as early as 2035.
The automotive industry is following suit and it's never been more exciting to change our driving habits and help them save the planet at the same time. The last five years have seen a 565% global increase in electric cars on the road.
And according to analysis, by 2025 EVs will make up 22 percent of the vehicles produced in the EU and close to 50% come 2030. Battery range and performance is constantly improving too, meaning a lot of the common concerns associated with ditching your combustion engine are a thing of the past.
As the adoption of electric cars grows, the contribution to global carbon emissions of vehicles lowers and as energy sources become more renewable in line with climate targets, electric car emissions will keep getting lower.
If you bought an electric car tomorrow, it would be getting more efficient and more carbon friendly every day. Electric vehicles offer a far greater use at the end of their lives than combustion engine vehicles with batteries able to be repurposed for second lives, storing electricity for our houses and commercial use, recycling or use in new batteries - playing a further role in the reduction of carbon emissions with a more sustainable life-cycle.
Green Hydrogen future
Hydrogen is an alternative fuel source that offers potential for future clean transport. Fuel cells in the vehicle combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity that powers an electric motor.
Currently, hydrogen is mostly produced from natural gas - a non-renewable, unsustainable natural resource that generates significant carbon emissions.
Green hydrogen, however, can be produced by the electrolysis of water using renewable energy, with water vapour being the only exhaust emission.
Raising awareness, driving change
The climate crisis is real and presents a huge challenge for us to overcome. Human activity created this global issue and only smarter sustainable and more carbon-positive human activity will limit its consequences.
The world looks to its leaders for more guidance and incentives in this fight, but much of the awareness and innovation will come from everyday life and culture.
Formula E is a prime example of this, creating the platform for sustainable motorsport, and providing the space for intense data-gathering efficiency and performance improvements for electric cars, while simultaneously providing action-packed racing and entertainment for millions all over the world.
Motorsport is once again serving a fundamental purpose in consumer culture - a place for some of the world's biggest manufacturers to showcase their advancements in electric car tech and win over potential customers.
Having major players invest heavily in cleaner technology, creating the cars consumers want to drive and making pledges to be completely carbon neutral is a huge step in the right direction, influenced both by policy and culture.
More industries will need to follow for carbon neutrality alongside adopting a more circular economy in the next few years. If they do, that 1.5 degree target will become more achievable and the terrifying consequences of further global warming needn't become a reality.