UN Report: Climate Change Accelerating, Planet ‘More Out of Balance’ Than Ever
The United Nations’ weather agency has reported that the planet’s climate is “more out of balance than at any time in observed history,” with the period between 2015 and 2025 expected to be the hottest eleven-year stretch on record.
“Between 2015 and 2025, we experienced the hottest 11 years on record,” World Meteorological Organization (WMO)’s Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett said.
Last year was 1.43°C above the 1850 to 1900 baseline, similarly breaking an ocean heat record, according to Barrett.
Grim State of the Climate
Presenting an overview of the climate in 2025, Barrett stressed that continued glacial retreat and ice melt are driving long-term global mean sea level rise.
The findings, she said, underscore the need to “function harder to obtain lifesaving forecasts and early warnings into the hands of those who can protect lives and livelihoods” to mitigate the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations.
The WMO has been issuing annual climate updates for over 30 years, with the record figures of the last decade being a growing concern.
Record Greenhouse Gas Levels
WMO’s scientific officer John Kennedy stated that concentrations of three key greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record levels in 2024, marking the single-largest year-on-year increase.
Data from monitoring sites worldwide indicates that levels of these gases continue to rise in 2025, altering “the energy balance of the planet,” he added.
Worrying Energy Imbalance
Kennedy explained that, in a balanced system, incoming energy from the sun equals outgoing energy, but this is not currently the case.
“There’s less outgoing energy due to the increased concentrations of greenhouse gases,” he said. “More energy coming in than going out means that energy is accumulating in the Earth’s system.”
The Earth’s energy imbalance is a new indicator the WMO has begun tracking, with results showing an acceleration in the rate of warming between 2001 and 2025.
“The largest fraction of that absorbed energy is going to the oceans, around 90 per cent of the excess energy in the climate system,” Kennedy said. “This matters because over three billion people depend on these marine and coastal resources for their livelihoods. They’re living off the ocean, and nearly 11 per cent of the global population live on low-lying coasts directly exposed to coastal hazards.”
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