Unequal evidence and impacts, limits to adaptation: Extreme weather in 2025

This report reviews some of the worst extreme weather events of 2025 the World Weather Attribution (WWA) team has studied, documenting the severe consequences of a warming climate and revealing, once again, how unprepared we remain. Across the 22 extreme events they analysed in depth, heatwaves, floods, storms, droughts and wildfires claimed lives, destroyed communities; and wiped out crops. Together, these events paint a stark picture of the escalating risks we face in a warming world.

Some of the key messages from the report include:

• In 2025, extreme weather events continued to occur at concerning levels. Although the natural modes of climate variability, such as El Nino were in a cooler phase, human-driven greenhouse gas emissions meant global temperatures were exceptionally high.
• Since 2015, when the Paris Agreement was signed, global warming has increased by 0.3°C. This seemingly small rise has already made extreme heat significantly more frequent, adding 11 extra hot days per year on average, and is projected to dramatically escalate with further warming.
• The impacts of 2025's extreme events are driven by local, context-specific vulnerabilities but in many cases the same patterns were found across the world.
• This year highlighted again, in stark terms, how unfairly the consequences of human-induced climate change are distributed, consistently hitting those who are already marginalised within their societies the hardest. But the inequity goes deeper: the scientific evidence base itself is uneven. The events of 2025 make it clear that while we urgently need to transition away from fossil fuels, we also must invest in adaptation measures. Many deaths and other impacts could be prevented with timely action.