Bengaluru: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has issued a grave warning that 2025 is set to rank among the top three warmest years ever recorded, underscoring the accelerating pace of climate change and the planet’s deepening environmental crisis. The report, released on Thursday, highlights the near-surface temperature between January and August 2025, which averaged 1.42°C above pre-industrial levels, marking a deviation of 0.12°C from previous records.
According to the WMO, the last decade (2015–2025) has been a relentless succession of climate extremes with each year ranking among the 11 hottest in the 176-year observational record. Last year, 2024, had already claimed the title of the hottest year ever documented, with global mean temperatures rising 1.55°C above pre-industrial baselines. Scientists warn that this unbroken sequence of temperature spikes is pushing the world closer to irreversible climate thresholds.
The report paints a stark picture of the Earth’s natural systems under strain. Concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane have continued their alarming ascent. Ocean heat content another key indicator of global warming has followed suit, reaching unprecedented levels in 2025. Meanwhile, Arctic sea ice following the winter freeze has hit a historic low, while Antarctic ice coverage remains well below average, signaling a worrying destabilization of the polar regions.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo described the situation as an “unprecedented streak of high temperatures,” warning that the planet is edging dangerously close to overshooting the 1.5°C global warming limit envisioned under the Paris Agreement. “Without urgent and sustained climate action, it will be virtually impossible to avoid temporarily surpassing this target,” Saulo cautioned. However, she stressed that restoring the global temperature trajectory to 1.5°C by the end of the century remains both scientifically possible and morally imperative.
The WMO emphasized that the last three years have consecutively been the warmest on record, a sign that the Earth’s climate system has entered a new, more volatile phase. The report concludes with a clear message: every additional fraction of a degree brings with it intensified heatwaves, rising sea levels, wildfires, and storms, demanding urgent collective action from governments and industries worldwide to reverse the tide of warming before it becomes uncontrollable.