WMO report: Earth's climate deeply out of balance
Key climate indicators such as greenhouse gas concentrations, global temperatures, ocean heat and sea levels all reached record highs in recent years, according to the World Meteorological Organization's State of the Global Climate 2025 report, released March 23. The past 11 years have been the warmest on record, with 2025 among the top three. Melting glaciers and sea ice, rising seas, and extreme weather are intensifying risks to ecosystems, health, and economies. With the 1.5° C warming limit established by the Paris Agreement nearing, the report stresses urgent emissions cuts and stronger climate action.
"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."
Most alarmingly, the analysis found that the Earth is now retaining more solar energy than it releases into space. Most of this trapped heat is being absorbed by the world's oceans. Global ocean heat reached a record high in 2025, and that measure has risen twice as fast over the past 20 years as it did over the previous 40. Impacts of the current imbalance are likely to last centuries if not millennia. (TNH, DW, PRI, Scientific American)
UN report calls out US emissions
A new United Nations report says the world will unavoidably blow past the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius—and it singles out the United States as a major part of the problem.
The UN Environment Program's "Emissions Gap Report 2026: The Point of Return," released Oct. 21, finds that if countries stick with current policies, warming could reach 2.8 degrees Celsius, or about 5 degrees Fahrenheit, this century. The report says that outlook is worse than last year's, in part because of the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. (ScrippsNews)