The amount of heat being trapped by the Earth reached a record high in 2025, according to the United Nations, with scientists warning that the effects of this imbalance could shape the planet for thousands of years to come.
Issued on: 23/03/2026 - RFI
The sun sets in the sky filled with smoke from a forest fire in Vina del Mar, Chile. The World Meteorolgical Organization has reported that the 11 hottest years ever recorded were all between 2015 and 2025. © Esteban Felix/AP
In its latest State of the Global Climate report published on Monday, the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that the past decade has been unprecedented. The 11 hottest years ever recorded have all occurred between 2015 and 2025 – a pattern that leaves little room for doubt about the trajectory of global warming.
Last year ranked among the two or three warmest on record, with global temperatures sitting around 1.43C above the 1850–1900 baseline. While the figure may sound incremental, scientists stress that even small increases at this scale translate into profound shifts across the Earth system.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres struck an urgent but purposeful tone, describing the climate as being in a state of emergency. Yet he also framed the moment as a clear signal for action rather than resignation, noting that repeated records are not coincidence but a call to respond.
A key addition to this year’s report is a closer look at the Earth’s energy imbalance – essentially the difference between energy entering the planet from the Sun and energy leaving it. In a stable climate, these flows are roughly equal. Today, they are not.
Rising concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – now at their highest levels in at least 800,000 years – have tipped that balance. The result is a growing surplus of heat within the Earth system, which reached a new peak in 2025.
In its latest State of the Global Climate report published on Monday, the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that the past decade has been unprecedented. The 11 hottest years ever recorded have all occurred between 2015 and 2025 – a pattern that leaves little room for doubt about the trajectory of global warming.
Last year ranked among the two or three warmest on record, with global temperatures sitting around 1.43C above the 1850–1900 baseline. While the figure may sound incremental, scientists stress that even small increases at this scale translate into profound shifts across the Earth system.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres struck an urgent but purposeful tone, describing the climate as being in a state of emergency. Yet he also framed the moment as a clear signal for action rather than resignation, noting that repeated records are not coincidence but a call to respond.
A key addition to this year’s report is a closer look at the Earth’s energy imbalance – essentially the difference between energy entering the planet from the Sun and energy leaving it. In a stable climate, these flows are roughly equal. Today, they are not.
Rising concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – now at their highest levels in at least 800,000 years – have tipped that balance. The result is a growing surplus of heat within the Earth system, which reached a new peak in 2025.
Ocean heat and rising seas
One of the most striking findings is where that excess heat is going. More than 91 percent of it is being absorbed by the oceans, making them central to understanding both the problem and its long-term consequences.
Ocean heat content hit another record in 2025, with the rate of warming more than doubling when comparing the periods 1960–2005 and 2005–2025. This acceleration is reshaping marine environments, contributing to biodiversity loss and weakening the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon.
Warmer seas also provide more energy for storms, intensifying tropical and subtropical systems, while accelerating the loss of sea ice in polar regions. Both Antarctica and Greenland are continuing to lose ice mass, and Arctic sea ice extent last year was among the lowest ever recorded.
Sea levels are rising in step. Global mean sea level is now about 11 centimetres higher than in 1993, when satellite measurements began. Even if emissions were stabilised, scientists say ocean warming and sea level rise would continue for centuries – a reminder of how deeply embedded these changes have become.
Despite the scale of the challenge, improved scientific understanding is offering clearer insights than ever before. WMO chief Celeste Saulo emphasised that advances in monitoring and modelling are helping to sharpen the picture, giving policymakers better tools to act decisively.
Shifting climate outlook
Natural climate patterns continue to play a role in shaping year-to-year variations. The planet is currently under the influence of La Nina, a cooling phase in the Pacific that affects global weather patterns. It typically alternates with the warming El Nino phase, with neutral conditions in between.
The record warmth of 2024, which reached around 1.55C above pre-industrial levels, coincided with a strong El Nino. Looking ahead, forecasters expect a return to neutral conditions by mid-2026, with a possible El Nino developing later in the year – a shift that could push temperatures higher again in 2027.
WMO officials acknowledge that the overall outlook presents serious challenges. Yet the purpose of the report is not only to document trends but to inform action. By laying out the evidence clearly, they hope to galvanise governments, businesses and communities to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.
Guterres underlined that climate change is not happening in isolation. In a world already grappling with geopolitical tensions and energy pressures, reliance on fossil fuels is proving to be both an environmental and a security risk.
(with newswires)
Earth hit record heat levels in 2025 as UN says warming will last thousands of years
Earth’s heat-trapping levels hit a record in 2025, with impacts expected to persist for thousands of years, the United Nations warned on Monday. The World Meteorological Organisation said the 11 warmest years on record occurred between 2015 and 2025, underscoring global warming in its State of the Global Climate report.
Issued on: 23/03/2026
By: FRANCE 24
The warmest year on record, 2024, was around 1.55C above the 1850-1900 average, and started in a strong El Nino.
Forecasts indicate neutral conditions by the middle of 2026 with a possible El Nino developing before the end of the year, said Kennedy.
If so, "then we're likely to see maybe elevated temperatures again in 2027", he told a press conference.
The World Meteorological Organisation's deputy chief, Ko Barrett, said the outlook was a "dire picture".
She said the WMO provided the evidence it sees, hoping that the information "will encourage people to take action".
But there was "no denying" that "these indicators are not moving in a direction that provides for a lot of hope", she said.
With war gripping the Middle East and fuel prices soaring, Guterres said the world should heed the alarm call.
"In this age of war, climate stress is also exposing another truth: our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilising both the climate and global security," he said.
"Today's report should come with a warning label: climate chaos is accelerating and delay is deadly," he said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Earth’s heat-trapping levels hit a record in 2025, with impacts expected to persist for thousands of years, the United Nations warned on Monday. The World Meteorological Organisation said the 11 warmest years on record occurred between 2015 and 2025, underscoring global warming in its State of the Global Climate report.
Issued on: 23/03/2026
By: FRANCE 24
Emperor penguins are seeing their habitat cut back by climate change with potentially deadly consequences. © Richard Gill, AFP
The amount of heat trapped by the Earth reached record levels in 2025, with the consequences of such warming feared to last for thousands of years, the UN warned Monday.
The 11 hottest years ever recorded were all between 2015 and 2025, the United Nations' WMO weather and climate agency confirmed in its flagship State of the Global Climate annual report.
Last year was the second or third hottest year on record, at about 1.43 Celsius above the 1850-1900 average, the World Meteorological Organisation said.
"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 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"Humanity has just endured the 11 hottest years on record. When history repeats itself 11 times, it is no longer a coincidence. It is a call to act."
For the first time, the WMO climate report includes the planet's energy imbalance: the rate at which energy enters and leaves the Earth system.
Under a stable climate, incoming energy from the Sun is about the same as the amount of outgoing energy, the Geneva-based agency said.
However the increase in concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – "to their highest level in at least 800,000 years" has "upset this equilibrium", the WMO said.
"The Earth's energy imbalance has increased since its observational record began in 1960, particularly in the past 20 years. It reached a new high in 2025."
Ocean heat record
WMO chief Celeste Saulo said scientific advances had improved understanding of the energy imbalance and its implications for the climate.
"Human activities are increasingly disrupting the natural equilibrium and we will live with these consequences for hundreds and thousands of years," she said.
More than 91 percent of the excess heat is stored in the ocean.
"Ocean heat content reached a new record high in 2025 and its rate of warming more than doubled from 1960-2005 to 2005-2025," the WMO said.
Ocean warming has far-reaching consequences, such as degradation of marine ecosystems, biodiversity loss and reduction of the ocean carbon sink, the agency said.
"It fuels tropical and subtropical storms and exacerbates ongoing sea-ice loss in the polar regions."
The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have both lost considerable mass, and the annual average extent of Arctic sea ice in 2025 was the lowest or second-lowest ever recorded in the satellite era.
Last year, the global mean sea level was around 11 centimetres higher than when satellite altimetry records began in 1993.
Ocean warming and sea level rise are projected to continue for centuries.
'Dire picture'
WMO scientific officer John Kennedy said global weather is still under the influence of La Nina, a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that cools surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. It brings changes in winds, pressure and rainfall patterns.
Conditions oscillate between La Nina and its warming opposite El Nino, with neutral conditions in between.
The amount of heat trapped by the Earth reached record levels in 2025, with the consequences of such warming feared to last for thousands of years, the UN warned Monday.
The 11 hottest years ever recorded were all between 2015 and 2025, the United Nations' WMO weather and climate agency confirmed in its flagship State of the Global Climate annual report.
Last year was the second or third hottest year on record, at about 1.43 Celsius above the 1850-1900 average, the World Meteorological Organisation said.
"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 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"Humanity has just endured the 11 hottest years on record. When history repeats itself 11 times, it is no longer a coincidence. It is a call to act."
For the first time, the WMO climate report includes the planet's energy imbalance: the rate at which energy enters and leaves the Earth system.
Under a stable climate, incoming energy from the Sun is about the same as the amount of outgoing energy, the Geneva-based agency said.
However the increase in concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – "to their highest level in at least 800,000 years" has "upset this equilibrium", the WMO said.
"The Earth's energy imbalance has increased since its observational record began in 1960, particularly in the past 20 years. It reached a new high in 2025."
Ocean heat record
WMO chief Celeste Saulo said scientific advances had improved understanding of the energy imbalance and its implications for the climate.
"Human activities are increasingly disrupting the natural equilibrium and we will live with these consequences for hundreds and thousands of years," she said.
More than 91 percent of the excess heat is stored in the ocean.
"Ocean heat content reached a new record high in 2025 and its rate of warming more than doubled from 1960-2005 to 2005-2025," the WMO said.
Ocean warming has far-reaching consequences, such as degradation of marine ecosystems, biodiversity loss and reduction of the ocean carbon sink, the agency said.
"It fuels tropical and subtropical storms and exacerbates ongoing sea-ice loss in the polar regions."
The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have both lost considerable mass, and the annual average extent of Arctic sea ice in 2025 was the lowest or second-lowest ever recorded in the satellite era.
Last year, the global mean sea level was around 11 centimetres higher than when satellite altimetry records began in 1993.
Ocean warming and sea level rise are projected to continue for centuries.
'Dire picture'
WMO scientific officer John Kennedy said global weather is still under the influence of La Nina, a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that cools surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. It brings changes in winds, pressure and rainfall patterns.
Conditions oscillate between La Nina and its warming opposite El Nino, with neutral conditions in between.
The warmest year on record, 2024, was around 1.55C above the 1850-1900 average, and started in a strong El Nino.
Forecasts indicate neutral conditions by the middle of 2026 with a possible El Nino developing before the end of the year, said Kennedy.
If so, "then we're likely to see maybe elevated temperatures again in 2027", he told a press conference.
The World Meteorological Organisation's deputy chief, Ko Barrett, said the outlook was a "dire picture".
She said the WMO provided the evidence it sees, hoping that the information "will encourage people to take action".
But there was "no denying" that "these indicators are not moving in a direction that provides for a lot of hope", she said.
With war gripping the Middle East and fuel prices soaring, Guterres said the world should heed the alarm call.
"In this age of war, climate stress is also exposing another truth: our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilising both the climate and global security," he said.
"Today's report should come with a warning label: climate chaos is accelerating and delay is deadly," he said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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