Online Reporter
Sifelani Tsiko
Fact Check
Global temperatures are on track to exceed the ambitious Paris Agreement goal of keeping global average temperatures below 1.5°C as an alarming streak of exceptional temperatures continued in 2025.
According to the latest State of the Global Climate update from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 2025 is set to be either the second or third warmest year on record.
Climate experts now fear that failure to put a lid on rising temperatures will see Africa and other poor countries bearing the brunt of the worst effects of climate change.
The period 2015 to 2025 has been the 10 warmest years in the 176-year observational record, with the past three years being the three warmest years on record.
The mean near-surface temperature in January-August 2025 was 1.42 °C ± 0.12 °C above the pre-industrial average, said the WMO report.
Concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and ocean heat content, which both reached record levels in 2024, continued to rise in 2025.
WMO experts say weather and climate-related extreme events to August 2025 – ranging from devastating rainfall and flooding to brutal heat and wildfires – had cascading impacts on lives, livelihoods and food systems.
This contributed to displacement across multiple regions, undermining sustainable development and economic progress.
“This unprecedented streak of high temperatures, combined with last year’s record increase in greenhouse gas levels, makes it clear that it will be virtually impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 °C in the next few years without temporarily overshooting this target,” said WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo.
“But the science is equally clear that it’s still entirely possible and essential to bring temperatures back down to 1.5 °C by the end of the century.”
“Each year above 1.5 degrees will hammer economies, deepen inequalities and inflict irreversible damage. We must act now, at great speed and scale, to make the overshoot as small, as short, and as safe as possible – and bring temperatures back below 1.5°C before the end of the century,” said UN secretary – general António Guterres in a statement to the Belém Climate Summit.
WMO released the State of the Global Climate update 2025 for the Summit at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Belem, Brazil.
The report also provides a snapshot of how the WMO community is supporting decision-makers with weather and climate intelligence.
Since 2015, the number of countries reporting multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWSs) has more than doubled – from 56 to 119 in 2024.
However, 40 percent of countries still lack MHEWSs, and urgent action is needed to close these remaining gaps.
Throughout 2025, extreme events caused massive economic and social upheaval and loss of life.
These included flooding in many countries in Africa and Asia, as well as wildfires in Europe and North America, extreme heat throughout the world, and deadly tropical cyclones.
