Every year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) releases its State of the Global Climate report, one of the clearest, most authoritative reflections on how the changing climate is reshaping life on Earth. This year’s report confirms that 2025 was one of the hottest years ever recorded, extending an 11‑year streak of record global heat. It also reveals that Earth is increasingly out of balance: ocean temperatures at new highs, sea levels continuing to rise, and glaciers receding at a record pace.

This sobering science underscores a larger truth: As the impacts from a warming world intensify, nature remains one of our strongest heroes in the fight to keep a safe climate future in view.

A planet running a fever

The WMO reports that 2025 was roughly 1.4°C warmer than preindustrial levels, making it the second or third warmest year on record, depending on the dataset. Every year since 2015 has now ranked among the warmest ever observed. These spiking temperatures contributed to severe weather across nearly every region in 2025. Communities faced unprecedented heatwaves across East Asia, southern Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Marine heatwaves spread across 90% of the world’s oceans, causing coral bleaching and disrupting marine life. Floods and storms displaced millions in places like Pakistan, Mozambique, Viet Nam, Yemen, and the United States while wildfires burned across Canada, California, the Mediterranean, Australia, and New Zealand. These impacts are no longer isolated events; they are increasing in frequency, intensity, and geographic reach.

The ocean: Silent, overwhelmed, and vital

More than 91% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases has been absorbed by the world’s oceans, which reached their highest level of heat content ever recorded in 2025. But the oceans’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide is weakening as waters warm and become more acidic, threatening coral reefs, fisheries, and coastal waterways from estuaries in the Amazon to key migratory corridors along the Eastern Pacific and beyond.

Healthy ocean ecosystems, including protected wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, and seagrass meadows, remain essential to building resilience to the quickly changing climate. Ocean ecosystems and habitats don’t just act as a carbon sponge, they stabilize shorelines, protect communities from rising waterlines, and reduce the cost of recovering from natural disasters. The WMO report makes clear that by investing in marine protection today, we can help nature and communities prepare for the changing climate of tomorrow.

Extreme weather is rising alongside solutions from nature

The WMO’s new supplementary report on extreme events paints a detailed picture of how quickly hazards are escalating. Catastrophic cyclones affected Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka in 2025 while floods struck West Africa, South Asia, and Central America, and record heat fueled fires across the Mediterranean, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. While the physical drivers differ, a common thread connects these impacts: Ecosystems that are degraded or lost are less able to buffer communities from climate shocks.

In places where mangroves have been removed, coastal flooding becomes more destructive. Where forests have been cleared, landslides and flash floods are more severe. And where rivers, wetlands, and floodplains have been altered, drought and flood extremes intensify. At the same time, examples from WWF’s priority landscapes show the protective power of intact nature. Forests in the Amazon help regulate rainfall across an entire continent. Restored wetlands in East Africa reduce flooding and improve water security. Healthy mangroves in Southeast Asia protect shorelines from storm surge and erosion. Nature doesn’t only store carbon, it absorbs shocks and offers communities time to adapt.

Climate change is a health crisis, too

For the first time, the WMO included a dedicated section on climate and health, underscoring that global warming is not just an environmental issue but an immediate and growing public health threat. Heat stress now affects more than 1.2 billion workers each year, particularly those working outdoors in agriculture, construction, and other labor-intensive sectors. Rising temperatures and forest loss are also accelerating the spread of vector‑borne diseases like dengue, which is now the fastest‑growing mosquito‑borne illness in the world. Yet only about half of countries have early warning systems tailored to health risks, and even fewer integrate climate data directly into public health decision‑making. Strengthening the link between climate science, nature-based solutions, and health systems will be essential to protect the most vulnerable.

A narrowing window and a clear path forward

The WMO’s findings are stark, but the report is also a reminder that solutions exist and that nature remains central to both slowing climate change and adapting to a warmer world. Protecting and restoring forests, rivers, reefs, wetlands, and grasslands are among the most effective ways to slow warming, reduce disaster risk, and safeguard food and water security. WWF is working around the world—in the Amazon, the Congo Basin, the Arctic, Southeast Asia, and beyond—to scale nature‑based solutions that help people and wildlife adapt to the quickly changing climate.

The planet may be swinging out of balance, but the systems capable of restoring stability are still within reach. This year’s State of the Global Climate report is not only a warning; it is also a call to strengthen and accelerate the nature-based solutions we know work.