The Earth experienced an alarming surge in trapped heat in 2025, reaching levels never seen before, a recent United Nations report. This unprecedented warming is expected to have consequences that will persist for thousands of years, highlighting the urgent need for global climate action. The findings were detailed in the latest annual State of the Global Climate report published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a specialized agency of the UN.
The report confirms a troubling trend: the 11 hottest years ever recorded have all occurred within the past decade, spanning from 2015 to 2025. This decade-long streak of extreme heat underscores the accelerating pace of climate change. Last year alone ranked as either the second or third warmest year on record, with global temperatures soaring approximately 1.43 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average measured between 1850 and 1900. Such figures paint a stark picture of the planet’s rapidly shifting climate.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a grave warning, emphasizing that the global climate is now in a state of emergency. He stressed that Earth is being pushed beyond its natural limits, with every major climate indicator signaling distress. Guterres pointed out that experiencing the 11 hottest years consecutively is no mere coincidence but a clear call to immediate and decisive action to combat climate change and its devastating effects.
For the first time, the WMO’s climate report incorporated data on the planet’s energy imbalance — the difference between the energy Earth receives from the Sun and the energy it radiates back into space. Under stable climatic conditions, these energy flows balance out. However, the report reveals that this equilibrium has been disrupted due to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which have reached their highest levels in at least 800,000 years. This disruption has caused the Earth’s energy imbalance to increase steadily since 1960, with a sharp rise over the past two decades, culminating in a new peak in 2025.
WMO chief Celeste Saulo highlighted how scientific advancements have deepened understanding of this energy imbalance and its far-reaching implications. She warned that human activities are increasingly disturbing the planet’s natural balance, and the resulting consequences will be felt for centuries, if not millennia. A staggering 91 percent of the excess heat trapped by the atmosphere is absorbed by the world’s oceans, which reached record-high heat content in 2025. The rate of ocean warming has more than doubled when comparing the periods 1960-2005 and 2005-2025.
The warming oceans have profound and wide-ranging impacts. They contribute to the degradation of marine ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity, while also weakening the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide, a critical function in regulating the global climate. Additionally, warmer oceans intensify tropical and subtropical storms, making them more destructive, and accelerate the loss of sea ice in polar regions. Both the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have experienced significant mass loss, and the Arctic’s sea ice extent in 2025 was among the lowest ever recorded since satellite monitoring began.
Sea levels continue to rise as a direct consequence of melting ice and thermal expansion of seawater. In 2025, the global average sea level was approximately 11 centimeters higher than when satellite altimetry measurements started in 1993. Projections indicate that ocean warming and rising sea levels will persist for centuries, posing long-term risks to coastal communities and ecosystems worldwide.
John Kennedy, a senior WMO scientific officer, explained that the global climate is currently influenced by La Niña, a natural phenomenon characterized by cooler surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. La Niña affects global weather patterns, including winds, pressure systems, and rainfall distribution. This phenomenon alternates with El Niño, which has the opposite warming effect, with neutral phases in between. The warmest year on record, 2024, saw temperatures about 1.55 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline and coincided with a strong El Niño event. Forecasts suggest that neutral conditions will prevail by mid-2026, with a possible return of El Niño later that year, potentially leading to elevated temperatures in 2027.
Ko Barrett, deputy chief of the WMO, described the climate outlook as a “dire picture.” She emphasized that the organization’s role is to present clear evidence of the current climate crisis in hopes of motivating governments, businesses, and individuals to take meaningful action. However, she acknowledged the sobering reality that key climate indicators continue to move in a direction that offers little optimism for the near future.
Amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and soaring fuel prices, Secretary-General Guterres highlighted the interconnectedness of global security and climate stability. He pointed out that humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels not only exacerbates climate change but also undermines geopolitical stability. Guterres concluded by stressing that the latest report should serve as a stark warning: climate chaos is accelerating, and any delay in addressing it will have deadly consequences for the planet and future generations.
