The Earth's climate is out of balance — UN

The World Meteorological Organization's 2025 climate report notes that the climate has entered a state of "unprecedented instability." This is reported by Point.

 

The document states that destructive changes have occurred over several decades, but their negative consequences will manifest for centuries, perhaps even millennia. 

 

"The world's climate is in a state of emergency, the Earth is reaching the limits of its capabilities," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. 

 

The report confirms that 2025 was the second or third warmest year since observations began. The global average temperature has risen by 1.43 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial period. This is just slightly below the 1.5-degree limit set by the Paris Agreement.

 

The period from 2015 to 2025 constitutes the warmest eleven years on record according to measurements.

 

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Celeste Saulo highlighted the consequences of excessive extreme weather events. According to her, last year, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, storms, and floods claimed thousands of lives, affected millions of people, and caused economic damage amounting to billions of euros.

 

The concentration of the three main greenhouse gases—CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide—continued to increase in 2025, according to data from monitoring stations. The oceans have warmed to record levels since 1960, and this warming rate is accelerating: the rate of warming from 2005 to 2025 was twice as high as the indicator from 1960 to 2005.

 

The melting of glaciers also continues at high rates. Last year, the area of Arctic sea ice fell to the minimum or second minimum level since satellite observations began in 1979, while the area of Antarctic ice fell to the third minimum level after 2023 and 2024.

 

For the first time, the report includes data on the Earth's energy imbalance—one of the climate indicators. This imbalance, measured by the ratio of solar energy absorbed and reflected back by the Earth, has been continuously increasing since 1960 and reached a record level in 2025.

 

According to WMO data, over 91% of the excess heat is absorbed by the global ocean, the atmosphere and land surface receive only about 1%, and 5% goes into land masses.

 

The European Union's Copernicus service assessed 2025 as the third warmest year since meteorological observations began.