Tag Archives: warming

11-year streak of record global warming continues, UN weather agency warns

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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed on Wednesday that 2025 was one of the three warmest years on record, continuing the streak of extraordinary global temperatures.

After analysing eight international datasets, the organization said that global average surface temperatures last year were 1.44°C above the 1850 to 1900 average.

Two of these datasets ranked 2025 as the second warmest year in the 176-year record, and the other six ranked it as the third warmest year.

Warm despite La Niña 

The fact that 2025 was very slightly cooler than the three-year average from 2023 is partly explained by the La Niña phenomenon, which is associated with colder weather.

But WMO insisted that any temporary cooling from La Niña is not reversing the long-term trend of warmer temperatures.

“The year 2025 started and ended with a cooling La Niña and yet it was still one of the warmest years on record globally because of the accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in our atmosphere,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

The organization added that the high temperatures on land and sea last year helped to fuel extreme weather, including heatwaves, heavy rainfall and deadly tropical cyclones, underlining the need for early warning systems.

Ocean heat

Citing a separate study, WMO highlighted that ocean temperatures were also among the highest on record last year, reflecting the long-term accumulation of heat within the climate system.

Regionally, about 33 per cent of the global ocean area ranked among its historical (1958–2025) top three warmest conditions, while about 57 per cent fell within the top five, including the tropical and South Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, North Indian Ocean and Southern Oceans, underscoring the broad ocean warming across basins.

WMO will provide full details of key climate change indicators, including greenhouse gases, surface temperatures, ocean heat and other trends, in its State of the Global Climate 2025 report to be issued in March.

Protecting lives in a warming world: Health takes centre stage at COP30

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As climate negotiations continue in the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil, governments, UN agencies and partners have adopted the Belém Health Action Plan, placing an emphasis on addressing healthcare inequalities.

For updates on all the action and UN News coverage so far, head to our dedicated page here.

A planet heading to ‘intensive care’

The adoption took place on COP’s designated Health Day – a recognition that the climate crisis is also a health crisis.

“If our planet were a patient, it would be admitted to intensive care,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on the eve of the conference.

Extreme heat, floods, droughts and storms are not only environmental threats –they are driving disease outbreaks, food and water insecurity, and the disruption of essential health services.

A UNFPA mobile health clinic midwife assesses a pregnant woman at a displacement camp in Marib, Yemen.

Blueprint for resilience

Developed by the WHO, UN University (UNU) and other UN partners in collaboration with the Brazilian Government, the Action Plan sets out practical steps to integrate health into climate strategies

  • Strengthening health systems to withstand climate shocks
  • Mobilising finance and technology for adaptation and
  • Ensuring communities have a voice, promoting their participation in governance.

Brazil’s Health Minister Alexandre Padilha described the launch as “a crucial moment to demonstrate the strength of the health sector in global climate action”

© UNFCCC/Diego Herculano

Civil society demonstration at COP30

Solutions hub

Thursday’s high-level sessions in the main conference rooms are dominated by speeches and discussions about climate and health – but throughout COP30, the WHO-led Health Pavilion has been the hub for solutions and dialogue.

The topics covered at the pavilion range from AI to waste management, jobs, education and human rights – all from the perspective of health.

Friday in the pavilion will be dedicated to the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health, a WHO-led initiative to accelerate the transition to climate-resilient and low carbon health systems. 

Food Waste Breakthrough

Also today, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and its partners launched an initiative to cut food waste in half by 2030 and cut up to seven per cent of methane emissions as part of efforts to slow climate change.

UNEP notes that the world wastes more than one billion tonnes of food every year, contributing up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and accounting for up to 14 per cent of methane emissions, which is a short-lived climate pollutant that is 84 times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over 20 years.

Funded by the Global Environment Facility, the UN Environment Programme will launch a $3 million, four-year global project to implement the targets of the Food Waste Breakthrough.  

Asia is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world

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While there are records which exist to be broken – Olympic ones, for example -these monthly temperature extremes are not medal worthy. And yet, China was not the only Asian country to set a flurry of new highs in 2024.

The continent is warming twice as fast as the global average, according to a report released Monday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This rate of warming – which shows no signs of stopping – is leading to devastating consequences for lives and livelihoods across the region, and no country is exempt from the consequences.

“Extreme weather is already exacting an unacceptably high toll,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo on Monday.

Large landmass, warmer temperatures

The WMO report said that Asia is warming twice as fast as global averages because of its large landmass, explaining that temperatures over land increase more quickly than those over sea.

“Variations in surface temperature have a large impact on natural systems and on human beings,” the report said.

The oceans around Asia are also experiencing temperature increases with surface temperatures in the Indian and Pacific Oceans reaching record levels in 2024.

Moreover, prolonged heat waves, both on land and sea, wreaked havoc across the region, leading to melting glaciers and rising sea levels. 

Too much and too little water

Some countries and communities in Asia were ravaged by record rainfall. Northern Kerala in India, for example, experienced a fatal landslide which killed over 350 people.

Record rainfall coupled with snow melt in Kazakhstan, which is home to thousands of glaciers, led to the worst flooding in 70 years.

Others were ravaged by the exact opposite problem – not enough rainfall. A summer long drought in China, for example, affected over 4.76 million people and damaged hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops.

WMO emphasized in the report that the only way to adapt to these increasingly polar weather patterns is to install more comprehensive early warning systems which are coupled with capacity building measures that enable communities to be more resilient.

Nepal: A case study in preparedness

The WMO report lauded the success that Nepal has had in installing early warning systems which monitor flooding risks, among other things, even as it said that more comprehensive action was necessary.

Between 26 and 28 September 2024, Nepal experienced extreme rainfall which created landslides and flooding across large swaths of the country. 246 people were killed, 178 injured and over 200 missing in the wake of the climate emergency.

While the impact of the crisis was extreme, early flood warning systems enabled communities to prepare for evacuation in addition to crisis responders to reach the worst hit regions quickly.

“This is the first time in 65 years that the flooding was this bad. We had zero casualties thanks to preparedness and rescue measures, but the damage was extensive,” said Ramesh karki, Mayor of Barahakshetra, an affected municipality in Eastern Nepal.

Moreover, comprehensive national protocols on emergency funding ensured that funding for humanitarian and rebuilding needs was quickly dispersed throughout the country.

WMO said that they are working with the Nepalese government and other partners to continue improving upon these systems.

“The work of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and their partners is more important than ever to save lives and livelihoods,” Ms. Saulo said. 

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