UN Issues New Climate Warning as El Niño looms

UN News

Photo highlights impact of drought as lake dries up.

The Earth’s climate is more out of balance than at any point in recorded history, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has warned.

The agency stated that the planet is absorbing significantly more heat energy than it can release, largely driven by greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide.

This record level of “energy imbalance” contributed to unprecedented ocean warming last year and continued melting of the planet’s ice caps. Scientists have also expressed concern that a natural warming phase known as El Niño—expected to develop later this year—could lead to further temperature records being broken.

In response to the report, UN Secretary General António Guterres reiterated his call for countries to move away from fossil fuels to renewable energy to "deliver climate security, energy security and national security".

"Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red," he warned, in a typically punchy video address.

The past 11 years have been the warmest on record since measurements began in 1850, according to the WMO.

In 2025, global average air temperatures were approximately 1.43°C above pre-industrial levels, defined as the period before large-scale human use of fossil fuels.

A temporary cooling effect caused by the natural La Niña weather pattern meant that 2025 was slightly cooler than 2024, which had been intensified by the opposing El Niño phase.

Nevertheless, 2025 remained among the three warmest years ever recorded. Many scientists now believe that global warming is accelerating, although temperatures continue to fall broadly within long-term projections.

The WMO also highlighted a wide range of additional indicators showing that climate change is progressing at an unprecedented rate. Among the most comprehensive measures is the growing amount of excess heat energy being absorbed by the Earth.

This "energy imbalance" ultimately drives climate change and reached a new high last year, the WMO says.

While scientists are still working out exactly why the Earth has accumulated so much extra heat over the past decade or so, they have no doubt that heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are the root cause of the imbalance.

Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are at their highest for at least two million years, the WMO says, due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.

Some of the extra energy trapped by these gases warms the atmosphere and the land, as well as melting the planet's ice.

The world's glaciers had one of their five worst years on record in 2024/25, according to provisional data, while sea ice at both poles was at or near record lows throughout most of 2025. But more than 90% of the Earth's extra energy heats the oceans, which in turn harms marine life, drives more intense storms and contributes to sea-level rise.

The heat stored in the upper 2km (1.2 miles) of the global ocean reached a new high last year, the WMO says. Over the past two decades, it has been warming more than twice as quickly as during the late 20th Century.

The south-west US is currently in the midst of a record-breaking early-season heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 40C in places over recent days – about 10-15C above average.

Rapid analysis by scientists at the World Weather Attribution group on Friday found that intensity of heat would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change.

Researchers are also closely watching the Pacific Ocean, with long-term forecasts strongly suggesting that a warming El Niño phase could form in the second half of 2026.

An El Niño - on top of the background human-caused warming trend - could push temperatures to new heights into 2027.

Source: BBC



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