Climate Extremes in 2025 Exposed Inequality, Limits of Adaptation: Report

Climate change-driven extreme weather events in 2025 disproportionately impacted poor and marginalised communities, pushing millions close to the “limits of adaptation,” according to the World Weather Attribution (WWA) annual report.

Despite La Niña conditions, 2025 ranked among the three warmest years on record, with the three-year global average crossing the 1.5°C threshold for the first time. Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, global temperatures have risen by about 0.3°C, yet some heatwaves are now up to ten times more likely, scientists said.

WWA identified 157 extreme weather events with humanitarian impacts in 2025, including 49 heatwaves, 49 floods and 38 storms. Of the 22 events studied in detail, 17 were made more severe or more likely due to climate change.

Heatwaves were the deadliest climate events, with an estimated 24,400 deaths from a single summer heatwave in Europe. Severe storms and cyclones across Asia, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean killed thousands and caused billions of dollars in damages, while droughts and wildfires affected regions from Africa and Australia to the Americas and the Middle East.

The report highlights deep inequality in climate impacts and data availability, with vulnerable populations consistently the hardest hit and limited scientific data constraining analysis in parts of the Global South.

Scientists stressed that while adaptation has saved lives, climate change is already pushing some regions beyond safe adaptation limits. They called for a rapid reduction in fossil fuel emissions to avoid escalating humanitarian and economic losses in 2026 and beyond.

The writer of this article is Dr. Seema Javed, an environmentalist & a communications professional in the field of climate and energy