2025 on Track to Be Among Three Warmest Years on Record, WMO Says

“The past 11 years, 2015 to 2025, will individually have been the eleven warmest years in the 176-year observational record, with the past three years being the three warmest years on record,” the World Meteorological Organization said on Thursday.

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2025 is on track to be the second or third hottest year on record, marking a continuation of the exceptionally high warming trend the world has witnessed in the past decade, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.

“The past 11 years, 2015 to 2025, will individually have been the eleven warmest years in the 176-year observational record, with the past three years being the three warmest years on record,” the UN agency said in a press release.

Scorching, deadly heat has affected many regions of the world this year, with temperatures soaring past 50C in some places. Countries like Japan, the UK and Spain saw their hottest summer on record. Places where heatwaves are highly uncommon – such as Europe's Nordic countries – were also affected by unprecedented, prolonged heat. Researchers linked the record heat to fossil fuel burning.

Indeed, the increase in extreme heat is a direct result of our warming planet, which is driven by greenhouse gases, primarily released by human activities such as fossil fuel burning, deforestation, agricultural practices and industrial processes. These gases raise Earth’s surface temperature, leading to longer and hotter heatwaves.

A first-of-its-kind study from September found that the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement producers have intensified hundreds of heatwaves worldwide this century.

Atmospheric concentrations of all three major planet-warming greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2024. Because of these gases’ extremely long durability in the atmosphere, the world is now committed to "more long-term temperature increase," Ko Barret, Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said last month.

“The heat trapped by CO2 and other greenhouse gases is turbo-charging our climate and leading to more extreme weather. Reducing emissions is therefore essential not just for our climate but also for our economic security and community well-being,” Barrett added.

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Record Ocean Heat

Excess greenhouse gases are trapping heat in our atmosphere, but close to 90% of that heat has been absorbed by the ocean. And as greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise this year, so has ocean heat content, surpassing the record levels it reached last year, WMO said on Thursday.

Ocean warming events such as marine heatwaves are likely to increase as the climate crisis deteriorates, putting a greater strain on marine ecosystems such as corals, leading to ocean acidification and sea level rise, and altering ocean currents, resulting in massive die-offs of marine species, and dead zones due to oxygen depletion. 

1.5C 'Virtually Impossible'

As world leaders prepare to negotiate collective strategies to combat climate change at next week's COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo warned that is it now "virtually impossible" to limit global warming to 1.5C "without temporarily overshooting this target."

The report comes days after the UN said that current emissions reduction pledges will slash emissions by 17% below 2019 levels by 2035, well below the 43% reduction needed by 2030 to stay within the 1.5C goal countries committed to by signing the Paris Agreement a decade ago.

But Saulo added that "it’s still entirely possible and essential to bring temperatures back down to 1.5C by the end of the century,” urging countries to act "at great speed and scale."

Featured image: Kyle Lam/hongkongfp.com