WMO report flags rising energy imbalance, intensifying extremes and long-term climate risks
By Bunmi Yekini
The planet’s climate system is sending increasingly urgent warning signals, with the latest report from the World Meteorological Organization confirming that the past decade has been the hottest ever recorded.
According to the State of the Global Climate 2025, the period from 2015 to 2025 marks the 11 warmest years on record, with 2025 ranking as the second or third hottest year, about 1.43 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Scientists say the sustained heat is no statistical anomaly but a clear manifestation of a warming world driven by human activity.
“The State of the Global Climate is in a state of emergency. Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red,” said António Guterres.
The report, released on World Meteorological Day, highlights how rising temperatures are closely tied to an imbalance in the Earth’s energy system, a measure of how much solar energy the planet absorbs compared to how much it emits back into space.
For the first time, this “energy imbalance” has been included as a central climate indicator. Under natural conditions, incoming and outgoing energy remain roughly equal. But increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, now at their highest levels in at least 800,000 years, have disrupted that equilibrium.
The imbalance has grown steadily since records began in 1960 and reached a new peak in 2025.
“Human activities are increasingly disrupting the natural equilibrium, and we will live with these consequences for hundreds and thousands of years,” said Celeste Saulo.
Oceans are absorbing the heat
While rising air temperatures are the most visible sign of climate change, scientists stress that the atmosphere accounts for only a fraction of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases.
More than 90% of that heat is absorbed by the oceans, which act as a vast buffer. Over the past two decades, the oceans have taken in energy equivalent to roughly 18 times annual global human energy consumption each year. In 2025, ocean heat content reached a record high, with the rate of warming more than doubling compared to earlier decades.
This rapid warming is already reshaping marine systems and contributing to sea level rise, a trend that has accelerated since satellite monitoring began in the early 1990s.
Ocean changes are also long-lasting. Projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicate that warming and acidification of deep ocean layers are effectively irreversible on timescales of centuries to millennia.
Melting ice, rising seas
At the poles, the signs are equally stark. Arctic sea ice extent in 2025 was at or near a record low, while Antarctic sea ice ranked among the lowest ever observed. Glaciers continued to shrink globally, with exceptional losses recorded in Iceland and along the Pacific coast of North America.
Roughly 3% of the excess heat in the climate system is now going into melting ice — a process that, together with thermal expansion of seawater, is driving long-term sea level rise.
Scientists warn that even if emissions were sharply reduced, these processes would continue for generations due to the inertia built into the climate system.
Extremes hit lives and economies
Beyond long-term trends, the report underscores the growing toll of extreme weather events. In 2025 alone, heatwaves, floods, droughts, wildfires and tropical cyclones killed thousands, displaced millions and caused billions of dollars in economic damage.
These events also expose vulnerabilities in interconnected global systems, from food supply chains to infrastructure and public health.
A dedicated section on climate and health shows how rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns are expanding the reach of diseases such as dengue fever, while increasing the risks of heat stress, particularly in already vulnerable populations.
A narrowing window
The findings come amid mounting concern that climate change is intersecting with geopolitical tensions and economic pressures.
“Our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilizing both the climate and global security,” Guterres said, warning that delays in action will have escalating consequences.
The WMO says its report, compiled from contributions by national meteorological agencies, regional climate centres and dozens of scientific experts, is intended to guide policy decisions at a critical moment.
“When we observe today, we don’t just predict the weather, we protect tomorrow,” Saulo said.
Scientists say, the physics of the planet is shifting, and with it, the boundaries of what societies can safely endure.