Photo: Getty ImagesLast year was among the hottest on record, as the world's "addiction" to fossil fuels continues to drive global warming, new data shows. 2024 remains the hottest year on record, but 2025 was the second- or third-hottest, across the nine major global datasets. The organisation said the global climate was more out of balance than at any other time in observed history, as greenhouse gas concentrations reached their highest levels in at least 800,000 years. The WMO's State of the Climate report said increasingly severe weather, driven by climate change, was already affecting agricultural production and displacing people from their homes. Victoria University professor of climate science James Renwick said the science of climate change had been understood for a century or more now.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 23, 2026 04:40 UTC