In late March, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its annual State of the Global Climate report for 2025.

As always, the report provides powerful details on multiple observed climate indicators, including global temperature, greenhouse gas emissions, ocean heat, sea level, ocean pH, sea-ice extent, and glacier mass balance. 

Not surprisingly, the findings of this year’s report are gravely concerning, highlighting (like so many other high-level reports in recent years) the incredibly serious extent to which emissions-driven warming is impacting planetary systems as well as the need for urgent global collaborative action to reverse course. 

To say that the 2025 report is a wake-up call for government policymakers and business leaders around the world is a vast understatement.

In the interest of further expanding awareness of this critical report, I cover eight of its key findings below:

First, on emissions, the WMO notes that “in 2024, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide reached its highest level in the last 2 million years,” and “levels of methane and nitrous oxide reached their highest levels in the last 800,000 years.”

In addition, “the increase in the annual carbon dioxide concentration in 2024 was the largest annual increase since modern measurement began in 1957.”

These emission levels are, of course, driven by our collective human actions and systems, and the magnitude of their associated impact cannot be understated as they drive all of the findings that follow.

Second, on temperature, the report indicates what citizens of the world have long been feeling, that “the past eleven years (2015-2025) were the eleven warmest years on record.”  Further, the past three years (2023-2025) were the three warmest on record.

In addition, depending on which dataset is used, 2025 was the second or third warmest year in the observational record, while 2024 remains the warmest.

Third, “ocean heat content reached the highest level in the 66-year observational period” in 2025, surpassing the prior high in 2024.  In addition, the rate of ocean warming over the past two decades (2005-2025) was more than twice that of the period from 1960-2025.  And “over the past nine years, each year has set a new record for ocean heat content.”

Clearly, the ocean is absorbing a tremendous amount of heat.  In fact, the report notes that 91% of surplus energy heat goes into warming the ocean.  Yet the impact of this warming remains largely invisible to many, thus limiting perception of the urgent need for corrective action.

Significantly, the authors highlighted the concept of irreversibility regarding ocean warming (a term in climate circles that I find most frightening) noting that “changes in ocean temperature are irreversible on centennial to millennial timescales.” 

Further, they noted that “even if future emissions are significantly reduced” ocean warming is expected to continue over the remainder of the century and beyond as a result of the current energy imbalance.

In other words, there is no quick fix to the impact of our actions to date on ocean health. 

Fourth, global mean sea level in 2025 was comparable to the record high level of 2024.

Fifth, the global average ocean surface pH has declined over the past 41 years.  The related graph in the report could not be more clear – the ocean is getting more acidic as a result of the continuous heat that it is absorbing.  The authors cite the conclusion from IPCC AR6 that present-day surface pH values are “unprecedented for at least 26,000 years.”

Sixth, on glacier mass balance, the report notes that in the 2024/2025 hydrological year, glacier mass loss “was among the five most negative glacier mass balances on record.”  Further, “8 of the 10 largest negative mass balance years since 1950 have occurred since 2016.”

Similarly, the report’s accompanying graph is startling, and so very sensical: continued record warming leads to continued ice melt.

Seventh, on sea-ice extent, “the annual average Arctic sea-ice extent for 2025 was the lowest or second lowest on record,” while “the maximum daily extent of Arctic sea-ice in 2025 was the lowest annual maximum in the observed record (1979 to present).”

Energy Imbalance from Imbalanced Actions

Last, and of high consequence, the 2025 WMO report highlights the concept of Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) – a measure that reflects “the difference between the amount of energy the Earth receives from the Sun (incoming solar radiation minus reflected solar radiation) and the amount of energy the Earth radiates back into space (outgoing long-wave radiation).”

It is a powerful indicator due to its comprehensive nature — it combines the changes in multiple components of the climate system.

The EEI is positive when the amount of incoming radiation exceeds the amount of outgoing radiation.

Not surprisingly, as a result of the continued increases of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, the authors note that the EEI “has become increasingly positive over time.” 

To me, the EEI concept is incredibly powerful, first as a summary metric of other climate indicators, and second as a reflection of the cost of the world’s commitment to imbalanced (and highly destructive) actions. 

Developed countries of the world continue to pump out warming-related emissions despite the extreme negative impacts on planetary systems and the associated need for urgent collaborative action to rein them in (collaboration which would in turn promote increased energy security, increased equity, and greater global security).

Astonishingly, the current U.S. administration is committed to perpetuating the climate crisis by actively prioritizing fossil fuel production and consumption while simultaneously blocking the renewable energy transition – and in the process accelerating environmental degradation, increasing inequity, and increasing long term global instability.

Such actions are truly imbalanced.

And they provide a permission structure for other countries of the world to follow.

Key Takeaways

The 2025 WMO report makes an excellent educational contribution for all citizens, especially policymakers and business leaders, and we don’t need to be advanced scientists to understand the gravity of what is presented.

The trends of the many key climate indicators are clear and alarming; the related graphs are simple and incredibly powerful.

Our collective actions regarding greenhouse gas emissions are severely impacting the health of the planet, increasing global temperature, warming the oceans, depleting glacier mass and sea-ice extent, and increasing sea level rise.

Increasingly, citizens around the globe see and feel these impacts in the form of heat waves, drought, fires, rain bombs, sea level rise and saltwater intrusion, and disrupted ecosystems.

I was particularly struck by 1) the alarming nature (and trend) of the many indicators presented, 2) the linkage between them, 3) the impact of emissions-driven warming on the ocean, 4) the irreversible nature of that warming, and 5) the power of the Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) indicator and the parallel to imbalance in our collective actions, which are exacerbating the EEI rather than mitigating it in the face of such clear warnings.

In a world so focused on data for decision making, the data in the 2025 WMO report, coupled with recent data from a host of other reports focused on the environment, planetary systems, and global risk, provides another poignant action call for all nations of the world to come together in Marshall Plan-like fashion to solve the climate challenge rather than clinging to the last vestiges of the very fuels and systems that are driving energy imbalance and global insecurity. 

UN Secretary General Guterres summed up the report perfectly, noting that the state of the global climate is one of “emergency,” adding that the Earth is being pushed beyond its limits, and that “every key climate indicator is flashing red.” 

Further, he stated that “Humanity has just endured the eleven hottest years on record.  When history repeats itself eleven times, it is no longer a coincidence.  It is a call to act.”

In my view, the WMO 2025 report redefines the term “wake-up call.” 

It is a perspective-changer, forcing a re-think of the current global focal points which drive inequity and conflict, and clearly highlighting the need for the world to move, broadly, on a collaborative path from imbalance to balance, with urgency.

The data indicate extremes that are impossible to ignore for anyone with a responsible mindset.

Reflecting on the report takes me back to UNEP’s 2025 Global Environment Outlook Seventh edition (GEO-7) report, appropriately titled “A future we choose: Why investing in Earth now can lead to a trillion-dollar benefit for all.”

As that report notes: “Despite global efforts and calls for action, our planet has already entered into uncharted territory, facing global environmental crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and desertification, and pollution and waste. These interconnected crises, which are undermining human well-being and are primarily caused by unsustainable systems of production and consumption, reinforce and exacerbate each other and need to be addressed together.”

But it adds: “Transformative solution pathways are possible — whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches at scale and pace can enable environmental goals to be met and provide social and economic benefits.”

Policymakers, business leaders, NGO leaders, academics, must be thinking in these “whole” terms, and individuals must hold them to account. 

The data extremes are not anomalies.

The consequences of continued inaction are clear. 

The needed change is an issue of choice. 

Let’s move from inaction and imbalance to action and balance.