The year 2025 stands out as one of the hottest on record, with human-induced greenhouse gas emissions exacerbating extreme weather events, according to a pivotal annual report by climate scientists.
Fossil fuel combustion has been identified as the primary driver of the alarming temperatures noted this year, which have intensified extreme weather patterns globally. This crisis has had particularly severe effects on vulnerable populations, as highlighted by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group.
Despite the cooling effects typically associated with La Niña, the EU’s Copernicus monitoring service has indicated that it is “virtually certain” that 2025 will rank as the second- or third-warmest year ever recorded.
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The WWA’s latest report reveals that out of 22 extreme weather events studied this year, 17 were intensified or made more likely due to climate change. In some cases, a lack of data from remote locations left results inconclusive.
Disasters such as heatwaves in South Sudan and Western Europe, heavy rainfall in Southeast Asia, and wildfires in Los Angeles have resulted in thousands of fatalities and millions of displacements.
11 extra hot days since Paris Agreement
Theodore Keeping from Imperial College London emphasized that recent extreme weather events serve as “undeniable evidence” of a rapidly transforming global climate.
“We are living in the climate that scientists warned about a decade ago, when the Paris Agreement was signed,” he stated.
Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, global temperatures have increased by approximately 0.3°C, resulting in an average of 11 more hot days annually, according to WWA research.
For the first time, the average global temperatures over the past three years are projected to surpass 1.5°C, a key target from the Paris Agreement, as per the EU’s Copernicus service. The UK’s Met Office anticipates that 2026 could be 1.34°C to 1.58°C warmer than pre-industrial levels.
Sjoukje Philip from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute noted, “The continuous rise in greenhouse gas emissions has pushed our climate into a new, more extreme state, where even small increases in global temperatures now trigger disproportionately severe impacts.”
Silent-killer heatwaves
Though often underreported, heatwaves were identified as the deadliest weather events of 2025. One study suggests that climate change has more than tripled the death toll from extreme heat in Europe this summer.
In South Sudan, schools closed for two weeks in February 2025 due to extreme heat, which caused heatstroke in children. The WWA found that human-induced climate change made this heatwave 4°C hotter, turning it into a frequent occurrence.
Theodore Keeping noted the disproportionate impact on women and girls, who often work in sectors with high exposure to heat.
Flood risks rise as adaptation limits near
Flooding was the most frequently studied disaster by the WWA in 2025, with significant rainfall events impacting countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and regions like the Mississippi River Valley and Botswana.
In Botswana, urban expansion without infrastructure improvements has increased vulnerability to severe floods, according to the WWA.
The group stresses the need for more funding in adaptation measures to minimize loss of life and damage, though they warn that adaptation has its limits.
“Jamaica was in a state of preparedness for Hurricane Melissa five days before landfall,” Keeping noted, “but when such an intense storm hits a small island nation in the Caribbean, even high levels of preparedness cannot prevent extreme losses and damages.”
Fossil fuel dependency is “costing lives”
Hurricane Melissa resulted in an estimated $8.8 billion in damages in Jamaica, amounting to 41% of the nation’s GDP in 2024, with insurance covering only a small portion of the losses.
The WWA report emphasizes the need to drastically cut fossil fuel emissions to avert the most severe climate impacts.
Friederike Otto, co-founder of WWA, remarked, “Decision-makers must face the reality that their continued reliance on fossil fuels is costing lives, billions in economic losses, and causing irreversible damage to communities worldwide.”
Original Story at www.climatechangenews.com