Climate sensitivity

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Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity is the measure of how much the planet will warm in response to a given amount of Greenhouse gas pollution. It is the most important number in climate change science, and past estimates of increased warming may have been too low.

Climate sensitivity is a measure of how much Earth's surface will cool or warm after a specified factor causes a change in its climate system, such as how much it will warm for a doubling in the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration. In technical terms, climate sensitivity is the average change in global mean surface temperature in response to a radiative forcing, which drives a difference between Earth's incoming and outgoing energy. Climate sensitivity is a key measure in climate science, and a focus area for climate scientists, who want to understand the ultimate consequences of anthropogenic global warming.