WMO 2025 State of Climate: "Every key climate indicator is flashing red" (Antonio Guterres, UN)

"The global climate is in a state of emergency. Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red", said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, on 23/03/2026, at the launch of the World Meteorological Organization's 2025 Global State of the Climate report.

Among the key results, the WMO report stresses that :
• "2015-2025 are the hottest 11 years on record, and 2025 is the second or third hottest year on record, at about 1,43 °C above the 1850-1900 average.
• The Ocean has been absorbing the equivalent of about eighteen times the annual human energy use each year for the past two decades.
• Annual sea ice extent in the Arctic was at or near a record low, Antarctic sea ice extent was the third lowest on record, and glacier melt continued unabated".

"The Earth’s climate is more out of balance than at any time in observed history, as greenhouse gas concentrations drive continued warming of the atmosphere and ocean and melting of ice. These rapid and large-scale changes have occurred within a few decades but will have harmful repercussions for hundreds - and potentially thousands - of years", stressed the WMO.

For the first time, the report includes the Earth’s energy imbalance as one of the key climate indicators. This indicator measures the rate at which energy enters and leaves the Earth system.

"Under a stable climate, incoming energy from the sun is about the same as the amount of outgoing energy. However, increasing concentrations of heat-trapping GHG - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - to their highest level in at least 800,000 years have upset this equilibrium", the WMO said.

"The Earth’s energy imbalance has increased since its observational record began in 1960, particularly in the past 20 years. It reached a new high in 2025."

For the UN Secretary, the results are "a call to act".