This tutorial explains 3 main ways of using the app: viewing existing Figures (below), searching for and drawing embers and accessing detailed information about embers.
For more information about what a 'burning ember' is, see the Introduction.
The Figures menu provides a list of figures from IPCC reports which, together, contain all embers assessed by the IPCC. Clicking on the figure name leads to a reconstruction of the embers found in the original figure. This is not a copy of the figure from the IPCC: it may not contain all elements from the original figure, and it is reconstructed from the underlying assessment data, it is not provided nor approved by the IPCC. If you wish to see the approved IPCC figure (e.g. for comparison), click on the corresponding line in the "Source reference" column of the list of figures (or within the Figure page, click on [source], under the title).
The legend for each figure provides brief information on the meaning of each risk level, and on confidence levels, by hovering the cursor over the corresponding element in the legend.
For some figures it is also possible to get an overview of the scope of the risk assessment and explanations for the 'risk transitions' - why the risk was assessed as increasing in the given temperature range. To see this information, hover above each element of the figure, as shown below. The information is taken from the referenced IPCC reports but it regroups data that are often scattered across paragraphs or sections of the reports.
We made efforts to ensure that the information about risks provided in this tool is as close as possible to the information provided in IPCC reports. We hope that by linking the diagrams with explanations about the assessed risks, this will facilitate activities such as teaching and outreach, supplementing the official reports by making the information more rapidly accessible. However, getting this information for most of the reports can only be a long term objective, due to the amount of information and the fact that it is often scattered.
To find embers among the more than 170 available in the database, click on the "Risks" menu. All embers presented in IPCC reports so far (until AR6 included) are available (Marbaix et al., 2025).
Embers can be searched by typing words from their name, keywords, or figure names. Search expressions using OR, AND, and NOT are allowed, as well as quotes. For example, "terrestrial ecosystems" looks for these words together only (8 embers), while "terrestrial" AND "ecosystems" only requires that the two words are present (10 embers), and "terrestrial" OR "ecosystems" would return everything containing one or both of these words (82 embers). It is also possible to select embers from the source IPCC reports and figure.
Figures are drawn for a set of 'selected' embers. If search criteria have been specified, the result can be converted to a selection by clicking on 'Select found embers'. It is also possible to select embers 'manually' by ticking the 'Select' box to the right of each ember. When a selection is made, the "Draw embers" button becomes active (the selection should contain less than 20 embers).
The resulting figure is drawn in the same way as the 'standard' figures containing the same embers as IPCC figures (above), and also provide information in an interactive way when available. The figure tends to be more interesting when the number of selected embers is small, as this facilitate comparisons. Remember that there is no guarantee that a given comparison is relevant, as the assessed risks are generally defined differently (e.g. Marbaix et al., 2024).
"Searching" embers (filtering with criteria) and "Selecting" embers (for drawing) are two different notions, which can be used sequentially as explained above. These can be canceled separately: clicking "Show all" will remove the search criteria, but it will keep the selection of embers (which you may change after getting the results of a new search). To remove the selection, click on "Clear selection" (this is particularly useful if you do not see the selected embers in a long list).
To view the details for a given ember click on the corresponding line. The information starts with general information on the ember, including:
Then a table provides information on the risk transition (= changes in risk from one level to the next): - Transition names, - "Hazard level" related to the risk, which is usually global mean temperature change) at the beginning/median/end of the transition - Level of confidence in the assessment of the transition - Explanation for the assessment of the change in risk at the given levels — this is the information shown in the tooltips when hovering the transitions in figures.
The last part of the page provides additional information and references. A more complete presentation is provided in Marbaix et al. (2025).
Please note that if you use any data or figure from this app, you need to provide the references to the source IPCC reports and communicate that the figures and text presented here are not product of, or under the responsibility of, the IPCC.
Registered experts may use these "ember pages" to supplement or improve the descriptive fields: → Experts: data access & contribution