The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is sounding the alarm over ongoing climate change . The climate is “more out of balance than ever before,” according to the organization’s 2025 climate report, published Monday, March 24, in Geneva.
The devastating changes have occurred over the course of several decades, but their harmful effects will be felt for hundreds, and possibly thousands, of years to come, the document notes. “The global climate is in a state of emergency,” warned UN Secretary-General António Guterres . The Earth is reaching its limits, he stated.
High temperatures on the planet
The report confirms that 2025 will be the second or third warmest year since records began. The global average temperature exceeded pre-industrial levels by 1.43 degrees Celsius—just below the 1.5 degree threshold set by the Paris Agreement. The period from 2015 to 2025 was the eleventh warmest year on record.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo warned of the consequences of increasingly extreme weather events. Heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, storms, and floods claimed thousands of lives last year, affected millions of people, and caused billions of euros in economic losses.
Records for all climate indicators
Concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases —CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide—continued to rise in 2025, according to individual measuring stations. Oceans have warmed to record levels since records began in 1960, and the rate of warming is accelerating: the rate of warming in 2005–2025 was double that of 1960–2005.
Glacier melt also continued at a rapid pace. Arctic sea ice extent last year dropped to its lowest or second lowest since satellite records began in 1979, while Antarctic sea ice extent fell to its third lowest since 2023 and 2024.
Earth’s energy imbalance
For the first time, the report presents data on the Earth’s energy imbalance , a key climate indicator. This imbalance, which measures the ratio of solar energy absorbed and reflected by the Earth, has been steadily increasing since 1960 and reached a record high in 2025.
According to the WMO, more than 91 percent of excess heat is absorbed by the world’s oceans, only one percent is accounted for by heating the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface, and five percent by the continental land masses.
The EU’s Copernicus service has estimated 2025 as the third warmest year since records began . The analysis by the Geneva-based WMO is based, in part, on data from national meteorological services, which explains the slight discrepancies in the estimates.
https://www.dw.com/ru/oon-zemnoj-klimat-vysel-iz-sostoania-ravnovesia/a-76482511