Cracked earth, from lack of water and baked from the heat of the sun, forms a pattern in the Nature Reserve of Popenguine, Senegal. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

By Umar Manzoor Shah
GENEVA, Switzerland & SRINAGAR, India, Mar 23 2026 (IPS)

The global climate system continued its alarming trajectory in 2025, with multiple indicators reaching record or near-record extremes, underscoring the accelerating pace of climate change and its cascading impacts on ecosystems and human societies, according to the latest State of the Global Climate 2025 report released by the World Metereological Organisation (WMO).

The report presents a stark assessment. Greenhouse gas concentrations, global temperatures, ocean heat, and sea levels all continued to rise, while glaciers and sea ice declined at unprecedented rates. Scientists warn that these changes are not isolated. They are interconnected signals of a rapidly warming planet.

“The Earth’s energy imbalance has become increasingly positive,” the report notes, referring to the growing gap between incoming solar radiation and outgoing heat. “This leads to an accumulation of excess energy” within the climate system.

Ko Barrett, Deputy Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization, during the report launch, told reporters  that  WMO has been issuing state of the global climate reports for more than 30 years to share the annual evidence basis for our key global indicators.

2025 was the third warmest year in recorded history. Credit: WMO

“Our report confirms that 2025 was among the hottest years ever recorded, about 1.43 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline, and part of an unprecedented streak where the past eleven years have all ranked as the warmest on record. What is particularly concerning is that this warming is not just reflected in temperatures but across the entire climate system. We are seeing glaciers continue to retreat, oceans warming at record levels, and sea levels rising as a result of both thermal expansion and melting ice. At the same time, extreme events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and tropical cyclones are affecting virtually every continent, showing how societies are already experiencing the impacts of climate change in real time.”

She added that these findings identify why monitoring the climate system is so critical. “The data we collect is not abstract. It helps us improve forecasts, strengthen early warning systems, and ultimately protect lives and livelihoods. The science is clear and it is becoming more urgent. Our focus now is to ensure that this information reaches decision-makers and communities so that it can inform planning and response in a rapidly changing climate.”

Earth’s climate is out of balance. Credit: WMO

As per the report, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 423.9 parts per million in 2024, the highest level in at least two million years. Methane and nitrous oxide also hit record levels, marking the highest concentrations in 800,000 years.

Scientists attribute this surge to continued fossil fuel use, increased wildfire emissions, and weakening natural carbon sinks. The report highlights that nearly half of all human-emitted carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere, intensifying the greenhouse effect.

“The increase in the annual carbon dioxide concentration in 2024 was the largest since modern measurements began in 1957,” the report reads, adding that this persistent rise in greenhouse gases remains the primary driver of global warming, accounting for a significant share of radiative forcing since the industrial era.

The World Meteorological Society report shows the state of the Earth’s climate. Credit: WMO

Global temperatures in 2025 remained exceptionally high. The planet was about 1.43°C warmer than pre-industrial levels, making it the second or third warmest year on record.

The report notes that the past eleven years, from 2015 to 2025, have all ranked among the warmest years ever recorded.

Although 2025 was slightly cooler than the record-breaking 2024, largely due to a shift from El Niño to La Niña conditions, the overall warming trend remains clear.

“Despite La Niña conditions, around 90 percent of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave during 2025,” the report observes, adding that such widespread marine heatwaves disrupt ecosystems, damage fisheries, and intensify extreme weather events.

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide concentrations are at an all-time high. Credit: WMO

Karina von Schuckmann, lead author, said that one of the most important messages from this report is that the Earth is no longer in energy balance.

“We are now seeing more energy entering the climate system than leaving it, and this excess energy is accumulating at an accelerating rate. What is striking is where this heat is going. Around 91 percent of it is being absorbed by the oceans, with the rest distributed across land, ice, and the atmosphere. This makes the ocean central to understanding climate change, not just as a buffer, but as a key driver of long-term impacts.”

She added that the world is also observing that this heat is increasingly being transferred into deeper layers of the ocean. According to Schuckmann, the finding is significant because once heat moves below the surface, it becomes part of long-term climate change that can persist for hundreds to thousands of years.

“In that sense, what we are seeing today is not just a short-term fluctuation. It represents a long-term commitment of the climate system. At the same time, greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise, and indicators like sea level are showing clear signs of acceleration, reinforcing the scale and persistence of the changes underway,” Schuckmann said.

“The rate of ocean warming over the past two decades is more than twice that observed between 1960 and 2005,” the report states.

It says that this rapid warming has far-reaching consequences. It fuels stronger storms, accelerates ice melt, and contributes to rising sea levels. It also threatens marine biodiversity and disrupts food chains.

The report has stated that global mean sea level remained near record highs in 2025, continuing a long-term upward trend. Since satellite measurements began in 1993, sea levels have risen by about 11 cm.

The rate of rise has also accelerated. Between 2012 and 2025, sea levels increased at nearly double the rate observed between 1993 and 2011. “Sea level has risen in all oceanic regions,” the report states, warning of increasing risks for coastal communities.

Rising seas threaten infrastructure, freshwater supplies, and livelihoods, particularly in low-lying regions and small island states.

The cryosphere, which includes glaciers and polar ice, continues to shrink at an alarming pace. The 2024–2025 hydrological year recorded one of the five most negative glacier mass balances since 1950. Notably, eight of the ten worst years for glacier loss have occurred since 2016.

Sea ice trends are equally concerning. Arctic sea ice extent in 2025 was among the lowest on record, while Antarctic sea ice reached its third lowest level since satellite monitoring began in 1979.

“The maximum daily extent of Arctic sea ice in 2025 was the lowest annual maximum in the observed record. “Shrinking ice reduces the Earth’s ability to reflect sunlight, further accelerating warming,” the report notes.

It has been claimed that the oceans, in addition to warming, are becoming more acidic due to the absorption of carbon dioxide. Surface ocean pH has declined steadily over the past four decades.

“Present-day surface pH values are unprecedented for at least 26,000 years,” the report states, citing high-confidence findings.

This chemical shift, as per the report, threatens coral reefs, shellfish, and marine ecosystems that support millions of livelihoods worldwide.

One of the most significant additions to this year’s report is the focus on Earth’s energy imbalance, a measure of how much excess heat the planet is retaining.

In 2025, this imbalance reached its highest level since records began in 1960. Scientists say this metric provides a comprehensive picture of global warming. “The total amount of heat stored on Earth is not just increasing but accelerating. This imbalance drives changes across the climate system, from rising temperatures to melting ice and shifting weather patterns,” the report warns.

The report has claimed that climate change is already affecting human lives and that extreme weather events, including floods, droughts, and heatwaves, are becoming more frequent and intense.

According to the report, these changes are associated with food insecurity, displacement, and economic losses, especially in vulnerable regions.

“Rapid large-scale changes in the Earth system have cascading impacts on human and natural systems. Health risks are also rising. Heatwaves, in particular, pose serious threats, especially in urban areas and regions with limited adaptive capacity,” the report states.

John Kennedy, Climate Scientist told reporters during the report launch that the past eleven years are the warmest on record, glaciers are losing mass at an accelerating rate, and sea ice is declining in both polar regions.  He said that, in fact, eight of the ten most negative glacier mass balance years have occurred since 2016, and the past four years have seen the lowest Antarctic sea ice minima on record.

“We are also seeing the impacts of this warming in the frequency and scale of extreme events. Heatwaves are becoming so widespread that it is increasingly difficult to document them individually. At the same time, ocean heat content continues to rise dramatically, with the energy being absorbed by the oceans equivalent to many times total human energy use each year. When we assess these changes against climate model projections, they remain within expected ranges, but the key question now is how these trends will evolve and whether the rate of warming could accelerate further in the coming years,” Kennedy said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Excerpt:

In Uruguay 22,414 people have been displaced by the floods that have affected the countries of the Mercosur trade bloc. Credit: Sistema Nacional de Emergencias (Sinae)

By Fabiana Frayssinet
BUENOS AIRES, Jan 4 2016 (IPS)

The flooding that has affected four South American countries has underscored the need for an integrated approach to addressing the causes and effects of climate change.

Above and beyond joint emergency response plans, global warming poses common problems like deforestation and the management of shared rivers.

Some 180,000 people have been evacuated since the worst flooding in years hit the region over the year-end holidays.

The floods caused when the Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay rivers overflowed their banks did not respect the borders between the nations of the Mercosur (Southern Common Market) bloc, and have brought them together in a shared environmental catastrophe.

The same scenes of flooded streets, rescue teams and evacuation centres have filled the news from the provinces of northeast Argentina, cities in northern Uruguay and southern Brazil, and riverbank communities near the capital of Paraguay.“There is indifference towards environmental problems in the Mercosur. So much so that a Mercosur summit was held just recently, and this issue, which was a tragedy foretold, was not even addressed.” -- Enrique Viale

“It is difficult to avoid associating the severity of the floods with the modifications that have to do with climate change,” said Jorge Taiana, vice president of Parlasur, the parliamentary institution of the Mercosur bloc, which is made up of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

“A serious joint response by the region is absolutely essential with respect to the two major strategies for confronting climate change, mitigation and adaptation to its effects,” Taiana, a lawmaker from Argentina’s “Front for Victory”, the left-leaning faction of the Justicialista (Peronist) Party, now in the opposition, told IPS.

“There is indifference towards environmental problems in the Mercosur,” Enrique Viale, president of the Argentine Association of Environmentalist Lawyers, told IPS. “So much so that a Mercosur summit was held just recently, and this issue, which was a tragedy foretold, was not even addressed.”

A number of experts have blamed the heavy rainfall on the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a cyclical climate phenomenon that affects weather patterns around the world.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), a specialised United Nations agency, had forecast that its effects would be among the strongest seen since 1950.

On Dec. 24 the U.N. General Assembly urged member states to draw up national and regional strategies to address El Niño’s socioeconomic and environmental impacts, suggesting the implementation of early warning systems and the adoption of prevention, mitigation and damage control measures.

Viale, however, said: “The El Niño phenomenon was announced, but it isn’t the only cause.”

“The four countries (affected by the severe flooding) are the world’s biggest soy producers, along with the United States. It is not just by chance that the map of deforestation caused by soy production coincides with the map of the flooding,” he said.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina were among the 10 countries with the highest levels of deforestation in the last 25 years. Between 1990 and 2015, Argentina lost more than 7.6 million hectares of forest.

In the Misionera or Paranaense jungle, also known as the Mata Atlantica, through which the Uruguay, Paraná and Iguazú rivers run, only seven percent of the original forest cover remains in Argentina, while this ecosystem in Paraguay and Brazil has been almost completely destroyed.

Greenpeace campaign coordinator in Argentina Hernán Giardini said in a statement that “Forests and jungles, besides concentrating considerable biodiversity, play a critical role in climate regulation, maintenance of water sources and flows and soil conservation.

“They are our natural sponge and protective umbrella. When we lose forests we become more vulnerable to heavy rains and run a serious risk of flooding,” the statement by the global environmental watchdog added.

Viale said: “This, added to direct seeding, the method used to plant transgenic soy, has turned the fields into veritable green deserts without any capacity for absorbing water.”

Soy production, which has boomed since 1990, is seen as essential to these South American economies, as soy is one of their chief export products.

As it expanded, soy also replaced other traditional crops, while pushing stockbreeding into marginal areas like jungles and forests.

Argentine environmentalist Jorge Daneri said “The expansion of the agricultural frontier, driven in particular by the expansion of genetically modified soy monoculture, the enormous deforestation of the Paranaense jungle, and the construction of dams on a giant scale by Brazil on the Paraná, Iguazú and Uruguay rivers – with many more under construction or planned – has greatly aggravated the environmental crisis throughout (South America’s) Southern Cone region.”

To address what he described as “regional ecocide,” Daneri, with the Argentine organisation “M´Biguá, Ciudadanía y Justicia Ambiental” (M´Biguá, Citizenship and Environmental Justice), called for the river basin committees of the Paraná, Uruguay and Paraguay rivers to work together.

“There isn’t a single river basin committee that includes the three Argentine provinces in question and the national state, and there is only CARU (the Uruguay River Administrative Commission), which includes Argentina and Uruguay, but not Brazil,” he said.

“This is a serious problem, because of the total lack of coordination,” he said. “We see the river basin committee as the main institution that should be focused on here. It has been clearly demonstrated that Mercosur has failed to play a serious role coordinating proactive, sustainable policies.”

Daneri stressed the urgent need for “a new environmental management and zoning system, and the reestablishment of biological corridors, as well as a system to recuperate riverbank areas through reforestation using native species of trees, and to restore native forests.”

He also proposed a reorganisation of zoning plans in every province, together with the national authorities, as well as environmental assessments of every river basin, at a regional level.

In the short term, Taiana suggested the Parlasur help coordinate contingency plans for those affected by the flooding, and in the longer term, he said local governments should study together construction projects and other initiatives financed by Mercosur.

He pointed out that the bloc has a Structural Convergence Fund to finance projects to improve infrastructure and boost the competitiveness and social development of the member countries.

“The most important aspect of these non-reimbursable funds that facilitate integration is that they acknowledge the asymmetries between member countries,” he said.

Taiana said the fund, of some 100 million dollars a year, could be invested in projects financed in border areas to mitigate or prevent flooding, like dikes or diversion channels.

“It seems to me that there are many common issues that are urgent, where the Mercosur as a whole still has a lot to do,” he said.

Daneri said “The projects needed are not cement works, they are not megadams or megadikes. It’s not about channelising rivers. Only making efforts during an emergency, or for emergencies, is a mistake.”

“Part of meeting this challenge is working towards a transition to leave the current oversimplified model of monoculture behind and moving in the direction of agroecology. The causes need to be addressed,” he added.

“The causes lie in a productive model that does not depend on nature’s cycles but on the cycles of the market, which is devastating for ecosystems,” he said.

U.N. agencies are growing increasingly concerned about the health impacts of hotter temperatures driven by global warming. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

By Kanya D'Almeida
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 21 2015 (IPS)

According to new data released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Tuesday, globally averaged temperatures over ocean and land surfaces between January and June of 2015 were the hottest on record since 1880.

A statement by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) revealed on Jul. 21 that “the average temperature for the six-month period was 0.85°C (1.53°F) above the 20th century average of 15.5°C (59.9°F), surpassing the previous record set in 2010 by 0.09°C (0.16°F).”

Average global sea surface temperatures for the January-June 2015 period outstripped the previous record in 2010 by 0.04°C (0.07°F).

Land surface temperatures also hit record levels, surpassing the previous 2007 high by 0.13°C (0.23°F), according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. The average land surface temperature from January to June was +1.40°C (2.52°F).

“Most of the world’s land areas were much warmer than average,” the organisation stated. “These regions include nearly all of Eurasia, South America, Africa, and western North America, with pockets of record warmth across these areas. All of Australia was warmer than average.”

March, May and June of 2015 all broke their monthly temperature records this year; January and February each witnessed the “second warmest” temperatures recorded and April experienced the fourth warmest monthly temperature ever.

NOAA’s Global Analysis for June 2015 further stated, “These six warm months combined with the previous six months (four of which were also record warm) to make the period July 2014–June 2015 the warmest 12-month period in the 136-year period of record, surpassing the previous record set just last month (June 2014–May 2015).”

In an even more disturbing trend, the world’s leading meteorological body stated that the average Arctic sea ice extent for June 2015 was 350,000 square miles (7.7 percent) below the 1981-2010 average and 60,000 square miles larger than the smallest June sea ice extent on record that occurred in 2010.

“This was the third smallest June extent since records began in 1979 according to analysis by the National Snow and Ice Data Center using data from NOAA and NASA,” the WMO release explained.

Meanwhile, the Antarctic sea ice extent in June was 380,000 square miles (7.2. percent) larger than the average for the 1981-2010 period, making it the largest ever Antarctic sea ice extent for the month of June.

Just prior to the release of this new data, on Jul. 1, the WMO together with the World Health Organisaiton (WHO) put out a set of guidelines designed to deal with the health risks associated with hotter global temperatures.

The joint guidance on Heat–Health Warning Systems, released earlier this month, aims to address “health risks posed by heatwaves, which are becoming more frequent and more intense as a result of climate change,” the agencies said.

“Heatwaves are a dangerous natural hazard, and one that requires increased attention,” said Maxx Dilley, Director of WMO’s Climate Prediction and Adaptation Branch, and Maria Neira, Director of WHO’s Department of Public Health, Environmenl and Social Determinants of Health.

“They lack the spectacular and sudden violence of other hazards, such as tropical cyclones or flash floods but the consequences can be severe.”

Over the past 50 years, according to WHO data, hot days, hot nights and heatwaves have become more frequent.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted, “The length, frequency and intensity of heatwaves will likely increase over most land areas during this century.”

Heatwaves also place an increased strain on infrastructure such as power, water and transport.

The agency cited the recent heatwaves in both India and Pakistan that killed thousands of people this summer.

In Pakistan alone, 1,200 perished in the month of June, mostly poor people and manual labourers who were forced to remain in the streets despite government warnings to stay indoors to avoid the blistering 45-degree heat.

According to the WHO, the European heatwaves in the northern hemisphere summer of 2003 were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people, as were the Russian heatwaves, forest fires and associated air pollution in 2010.

Edited by Kitty Stapp

Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), addressing the opening session of the “Our Common Future Under Climate Change” scientific conference Paris, Jul. 7-10. Credit: Fabiola Ortiz/IPS

By Fabíola Ortiz
PARIS, Jul 7 2015 (IPS)

The cost of inaction is high when it comes to climate change and, so far, countries’ commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are not enough, says Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

In an exclusive interview with IPS during the “Our Common Future Under Climate Change” scientific conference being held in Paris (Jul. 7-10) at UNESCO headquarters, Jarraud said that “we need more ambitious commitments before getting to Paris” for the U.N. Climate Conference in December, adding that climate change should be included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) currently being worked out.

“Climate change is about much more than temperature,” he added.

Q:  Will this scientific meeting help to build the path towards a solid Conference of the Parties (COP21) agreement in Paris December?

Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Credit: Fabiola Ortiz/IPS

A:  Every six years the scientific community reviews the state of knowledge about climate and this is what we call the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] assessment report. The latest report was finalised a year ago, so in order to prepare for the next COP in Paris it was important to update it so that decision makers and negotiators have access to the very latest information. One of the roles of this conference is to get scientists together and also get a closer interaction between scientists and decision makers.

Q:  Do you think a Paris deal will be possible as a way of braking global warming?

A:  We have to look at it as a process. Many people remember Copenhagen in 2009 and say it was a failure but it was a place where the 2°C objective was set up. Every COP is going one step further in defining the objectives but also addressing solutions.

What is going to be decided in Paris is hopefully an ambitious plan to reduce significantly the emissions of GHGs and what will be reduced over the next 20, 30 and 40 years.

Countries were asked to pledge what they are willing to do and over which time scales. So far the pledges are not enough for 2°C but we hope this will accelerate. We can see countries are coming on board with significant commitment. We hope that in Paris we will be as close as possible to this objective. I am confident there will be progress.“You cannot have any sustainable development if you don’t take into account climate damage” – Michel Jarraud, WMO Secretary-General

Q:  U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) are not enough to meet the world’s target.

A:  At this stage the INDCs are not yet enough. He [Ban Ki-moon] says to member states that we need more ambitious commitment before Paris. We still have time, we still need to accelerate and go further. China has recently announced its commitment. If we don’t get enough in Paris to stand at 2°C, it means we will have to reduce [emissions] further and faster afterwards.

Q:  You have said there is an “adaptation gap”: In which way?

A:  There are two facets of the climate negotiations and one is what we call mitigation. It is important to reduce GHG emissions as much as possible and as fast as possible so that we minimise the amplitude of the climate change.

As a number of GHGs have already been in the atmosphere for a long time, it means we already committed to some amount of global warming. Therefore we need to adapt to the consequences such as sea level rise, impact on crops, on health and on extreme weather events.

Developed and developing countries don’t have the same financial, human and technical capacity to adapt. How can we bridge this gap by making sure there are appropriate technology transfer and financing mechanisms? This is one of the difficult parts of the negotiations. We need to address that as a priority.

Q:  Is the Green Climate Fund (GCF) enough to fill the finance gap?

A:  The fund has had a pledge of over 10 billion dollars. The objective by 2020 is to reach a funding stream of about 100 billion dollars per year. We are still in the early phase of that and hopefully in Paris there will be an acceleration towards identifying possible sources of financing.

The key is to see this finance not as an expense but as an investment. The cost of doing nothing will be more than acting. On a longer time scale, the cost of inaction is actually bigger, and we and maybe our children and grandchildren will have to pay more later.

Q:  What are the main concerns of scientists regarding the impacts of climate change worldwide?

A:  It is about much more than temperature. It impacts the hydrological cycle – for example, more precipitation in places where there is a lot already, less in places that are very dry. It will amplify this water cycle, so the regions that are already under water stress will have more droughts and heat waves and, vice-versa, there will be more floods in regions that already have too much water. There will be an impact on extreme weather events, like heat waves which are becoming more frequent and intense, and tropical cyclones and typhoons.

Q: Is there any particular region in the world about which climatologists are most concerned?

A:  Extreme events can set the clock of development back in several years. Sea level rise in small islands is a very big concern in the Indian Ocean, the Pacific and the Caribbean, as well as coastal areas. In countries with big deltas like the Nile or in Bangladesh, sea level rise will increase the vulnerability of these countries enormously.

Elsewhere, the risk of desertification will increase in several sub-Saharan regions, some parts of Latin America, Central Asia and around the Mediterranean basin. Many countries will be affected in different ways. Temperature is only part of the equation, because the increase of the 2°C will not be uniform. The warming will be higher over continents and oceans, it will be greater at higher altitudes.

One of the challenges is to translate this large-scale global scenario for regional and national levels. It is still a scientific challenge.

Q:  Should climate change be included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

A: You cannot have any sustainable development if you don’t take into account climate damage. What is being proposed right now for the SDGs is that climate is a factor that should be considered for almost all the individual proposed goals.

Q:  Is there a disconnection between science and policy-making when it comes to climate change?

A:  Yes, but less than there used to be. Decision-makers are taking the information provided by scientists more seriously. This is based on the fact that the scientific consensus is huge. There are still a few sceptics but essentially the scientific community is almost unanimous.

Most scientific questions have now a clear answer. Is climate changing? Yes, without any doubt. Is it due to human activities? Yes, with a probability of more than 95 percent. However there are still a few other questions that require more scientific research. The knowledge base is incredibly solid but we want to understand more and go even further.

Edited by Phil Harris