State of the climate in Africa 2025

This report provides a consolidated regional assessment, with authoritative information on key climate indicators, impacts and risks to support decision-making. It includes input from dozens of experts, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, climate centres and United Nations partners. The African continent is warming faster than the global average, and the rate of warming across the continent since 1991 is substantially higher than in any of the previous 30-year periods. The annual mean surface air temperature averaged over land areas in 2025 ranked between the third and seventh warmest on record, depending on the dataset used, according to the report.

Africa’s glaciers have lost more than 90% of their area since the late nineteenth century. On Mt. Kilimanjaro, glacier area has declined from 11.4 km² in 1900 to less than 1 km² in recent years. Ocean warming continues across the region, with widespread marine heatwaves. In 2025 ocean heat content and sea-surface temperature were lower than the record levels observed in 2023 and 2024 but remains in the range of historically high values from the past 10 years. Ocean acidification is continuing, with record low surface pH observed across most of the region in 2025. Ocean heat and acidification harms marine ecosystems and livelihoods of people who depend on them. Sea-level rise along African coasts from 1999 to 2025 exceeds the global average of 3.6 mm per year in several regions, reaching around 4.2 mm per year along the Atlantic coast, 5.2 mm per year along the Indian Ocean coast, and 5.6 mm per year in the Red Sea, according to the report.