The following is a transcript of the UN Secretary-General's video message for the WMO's State of the Global Climate 2025 report, released on 23 March 2026. The WMO’s State of the Global Climate report 2025 confirms that 2015-2025 are the hottest 11-years on record, and that 2025 was the second or third hottest year on record, at about 1.43 °C above the 1850-1900 average.
The State of the Global Climate is in a state of emergency.
Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red.
That is the clear message of the latest report from the World Meteorological Organization.
The report confirms that the Earth’s energy imbalance – the gap between heat absorbed and heat released – is the highest on record.
In other words, our planet is trapping heat faster than it can shed it.
Greenhouse gas concentrations are higher than at any point in hundreds of thousands of years. Global temperatures continue to rise.
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.
Meanwhile, oceans are absorbing epic levels of heat, fueling ever stronger storms. Glaciers and sea ice are vanishing. And sea-levels are relentlessly rising.
These findings are not confined to charts and graphs. They are written into the daily lives of people.
In families struggling as droughts and storms drive up food prices;
In workers pushed to the brink by extreme heat;
In farmers watching crops wither;
In communities and homes swept away by floods.
Those on the frontlines urgently need a surge in adaptation finance to face the here-and-now impacts of the climate crisis.
And in this age of war, climate stress is also exposing another truth: our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilizing both the climate and global security.
Now more than ever, we must accelerate a just transition to renewable energy.
Renewables deliver climate security, energy security and national security.
Today’s report should come with a warning label: climate chaos is accelerating and delay is deadly.
The way ahead must be grounded in science, common sense, and the courage to act.
