Overview
- The WMO’s State of the Global Climate 2025 report, released Monday, confirms 2015–2025 as the hottest 11 years on record and places 2025 as the second or third warmest at about 1.43°C above pre‑industrial levels.
- Earth’s energy imbalance—the gap between solar energy coming in and heat leaving to space—reached a new high in 2025 as CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide rose to multi‑millennial peaks and kept climbing.
- Oceans absorbed about 91% of the excess heat and set a new record for heat content in 2025, with faster warming since 2005, rising seas about 11 cm above 1993 levels, and continued ice loss in Greenland, Antarctica, and the Arctic.
- Extreme heat, floods, storms, drought, wildfires, and cyclones in 2025 caused thousands of deaths and billions in losses, with added strains from heat stress on 1.2 billion workers and a surge in dengue risk.
- WMO scientists warn many changes are now long‑term, and they note forecasts that an El Niño later in 2026 could lift global temperatures again in 2027, raising the stakes for faster emissions cuts and stronger adaptation.