Melting Arctic and Soaring Temperatures: Urgent Climate Crisis Unfolds

According to the latest report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the year 2025 is on track to be the second or third warmest globally on record. This comes as an "unprecedented streak" of high temperatures persists, with the past 11 years being the warmest ever recorded.

The WMO has confirmed that global average surface temperatures from January to August 2025 were 1.42°C above pre-industrial levels, a slight drop from the record 1.55°C set in 2024. However, the agency warns that it will be "virtually impossible" to curb global warming to the agreed limit of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in the next few years without temporarily overshooting the target.

Compounding the crisis, the Arctic sea ice was at its lowest levels on record for the time of year after the winter freeze. Additionally, concentrations of key greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, were at record highs in 2024 and are expected to be even higher in 2025.

As world leaders gather in Belem, Brazil, for the latest round of UN climate talks, the WMO secretary-general, Celeste Saulo, emphasized that it is "still entirely possible and essential" to bring temperatures back down to the 1.5°C goal by the end of the century. However, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that each year above 1.5°C will "hammer economies, deepen inequalities and inflict irreversible damage," urging immediate action at "great speed and scale" to mitigate the crisis.