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Informist, Tuesday, Mar. 24, 2026

 

MUMBAI – Global greenhouse gas emissions continued to increase last year, marking 2025 as the second or third-hottest year on record, and about 1.43 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 average, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The Earth's energy imbalance — which has been rising since its observational record began in 1960 — reached a 65-year record high in 2025. The Earth's energy balance measures the rate at which energy enters and leaves the Earth system, the organisation said.

 

Under a stable climate, incoming energy from the sun is about the same as the amount of outgoing energy. However, concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases released due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels have reached their highest level in at least 800,000 years, upsetting this equilibrium, the organisation said in its State of Climate report for 2025. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

The ocean has been absorbing the equivalent of about 18 times the annual human energy use each year for the past two decades. Around 90% of the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the ocean, which acts as a major buffer against higher temperatures on land. However, this also causes a further warming of the ocean, which affects marine life, weather patterns, and sea levels. The ocean continued to warm in 2025, reaching record high levels.

 

The rise in carbon dioxide concentration also increases the ocean's acid levels. Global mean ocean surface pH has been steadily declining at rates not seen for at least the past 26,000 years, the organisation said. A decline in the ocean's pH — or an increase in its acidity — reduces its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

 

Ocean warming and sea level rise will continue for centuries, according to projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the organisation said. Changes in ocean warming and deep ocean pH are irreversible on centennial to millennial time scales, it said.

 

This heightened concentration of greenhouse gas has thrown the Earth's climate out of balance more than ever before, resulting in extreme weather events across the globe, the organisation said. These rapid and large-scale climate changes, which have only occurred within a few decades, will have harmful repercussions for hundreds— and potentially thousands— of years, it said.

 

In India, 2025 ranked as the eighth-warmest year since records began in 1901. The country recorded seven extreme weather events in 2025, which included floods, heat waves, and thunderstorms, the organisation said. 

 

The rapid change in climate has also impacted food security, the organisation said. The current global food and nutrition crisis is the largest in modern human history and is aggravated by the effects of climate and weather extremes, it said. Between 2007 and 2022, 88 post-disaster needs assessment surveys conducted in 60 countries worldwide showed that over 65% of losses caused by droughts occurred in the agriculture sector, including crop and livestock production losses. For floods, storms, and cyclones, around 20% of losses are in agriculture.

 

"On a day-to-day basis, our weather has become more extreme. In 2025, heatwaves, wildfires, drought, tropical cyclones, storms and flooding caused thousands of deaths, impacted millions of people and caused billions in economic losses", the report quoted Celeste Saulo, secretary-general, World Meteorological Organization, as saying.

 

"And in this age of war, climate stress is also exposing another truth: our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilising both the climate and global security. Today's report should come with a warning label: climate chaos is accelerating and delay is deadly," the report quoted Antonio Guterres, secretary-general, United Nations, as saying. 

 

Reported by Shreya Shetty

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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