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WMO Press conference: State of the Global Climate 2025 report
EMBARGO 23 MARCH 04:00 GMT
UN weather agency warns of record ‘climate imbalance’ as planetary warming accelerates
All-time high greenhouse gas concentrations in our planet’s atmosphere continue to drive heat records on land and sea, with long-lasting consequences for humanity, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has warned.
Hot on the heels of a scorching decade, the UN’s weather agency has said that the Earth’s climate is “more out of balance than at any time in observed history.”
“Between 2015 and 2025, we experienced the hottest 11 years on record,” WMO’s Deputy Executive Secretary Ko Barrett told reporters in Geneva.
2025 itself was some 1.43 degrees Celsius above the 1850 to 1900 baseline, she said, in addition to breaking an ocean heat record.
Presenting a grim overview of the state of the climate in 2025, Ms. Barrett stressed that as glaciers continue to retreat and ice continues to melt, “the warming ocean and melting land-based ice are driving the long-term rise in global mean sea level rise.”
She said that the findings are an inspiration “to work harder to get life-saving forecasts and early warnings into the hands of those who can protect lives and livelihoods” so that they can mitigate the devastating impacts of the ongoing climate turmoil on the most vulnerable.
WMO has been issuing annual climate updates for more than 30 years, and the record figures in the last decade have been an increasing cause for concern.
The agency’s scientific officer John Kennedy said that concentrations in the atmosphere of three key greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide reached record levels in 2024 – the last year for which there are consolidated global numbers, which also marked the single-largest year-on-year increase.
“Data from individual sites around the world indicates that levels of these greenhouse gases continue to increase in 2025” and to modify “the energy balance of the planet,” he added.
Mr. Kennedy explained that under a balanced system, incoming energy from the sun is about the same as the amount of outgoing energy – but this is not the case at present.
“There's less outgoing energy due to the increased concentrations of greenhouse gases… More energy coming in than going out means that energy is accumulating in the Earth's system,” he said.
The Earth's energy imbalance is a new indicator which WMO has started tracking, with results pointing to a notable acceleration in the rate at which warming has been progressing between 2001 and 2025.
“The largest fraction of that absorbed energy is going to the oceans – around 90 per cent of the excess energy in the climate system,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“This matters because over three billion people depend on these marine and coastal resources for their livelihoods. They're living off the ocean, and nearly 11 per cent of the global population live on low-lying coasts directly exposed to coastal hazards,” he concluded.
-Ends-
STORY Climate update – WMO – EMBARGO 23 MARCH 04:00 GMT
TRT: 2:00”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 19 MARCH 2026 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND EMBARGO 23 MARCH 04:00 GMT
1. Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
2. Medium shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Ko Barrett, Deputy Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “Between 2015 and 2025, we experienced the hottest 11 years on record. In 2025, our glaciers continue to retreat and ice continues to melt. The warming ocean and melting land-based ice are driving the long-term rise in global mean sea level rise.”
4. Medium reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; journalists in the Press room; speaker on screens.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – John Kennedy, Scientific Officer, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide reached record levels in 2024, which is the last year for which we have consolidated global numbers.”
6. Medium shot: Journalists in the Press room.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – John Kennedy, Scientific Officer, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “It was also the single biggest one-year increase in the record, and data from individual sites around the world indicates that levels of these greenhouse gases continue to increase in 2025. Now these greenhouse gases, along with aerosols and other things in the atmosphere, are modifying the energy balance of the planet.”
8. Medium shot: Journalist in the Press room.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – John Kennedy, Scientific Officer, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “In the current climate there is an imbalance. We have the same amounts of incoming energy, but there's less outgoing energy due to the increased concentrations of greenhouse gases. And that imbalance with more energy coming in than going out means that energy is accumulating in the Earth's system.”
10. Wide shot: Speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – John Kennedy, Scientific Officer, World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “The largest fraction of that absorbed energy is going to the oceans, around 90 per cent of the excess energy in the climate system. And this matters because over three billion people depend on these marine and coastal resources for their livelihoods. They're living off the ocean, and nearly 11 per cent of the global population live on low-lying coasts directly exposed to coastal hazards, so very vulnerable to things like sea-level rise.”
12. Various shots of journalists in the Press room.
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