On ocean impacts:

"The WMO Report provides a timely update on the dire state of Earth's climate system in an era where impacts are rapidly increasing. Whilst natural Greenhouse gases provide our planet with liveable conditions by trapping energy within the Earth system, anthropogenic emissions, such as from fossil fuel usage, have increased energy in the system which has led to accelerated warming. That warming and the associated impacts will continue for decades – and unless we act to reduce emissions, for centuries.

Over 90% of the additional energy trapped by increased Greenhouse gases has been absorbed by the ocean, causing around 1ºC of warming. This has reduced sea ice that reflects solar energy, so further increases the rate of warming, and influences major ocean currents – both of those factors can have wide-reaching effects on the ocean. Intensifying marine heatwaves have already impacted ocean systems through coral bleaching and mortality across the tropics, seagrass death and catastrophic marine disease outbreaks in tropical and temperate zones, as well as episodes of salmon lice in polar aquaculture. If rainforests are thought of as the lungs of our planet, the ocean provides the heart and circulation – and human-induced climate change is giving us all heart disease."

On heritage impacts:

"Impacts from climate change are recognised as the greatest threat to our shared heritage. Climate change is now understood to represent the greatest threat to World Heritage properties, recognised internationally as among the most important locations to humanity. The changes outlined in the WMO report – including land and sea warming, rising sea levels and increases in heavy rainfall events – have resulted in unprecedented forest fires, erosion of coastal cultural sites, impacts on built heritage and cityscapes, and diminishing glaciers.

The United Nations climate change body has recognised the importance of culture and heritage through indicators around implementation of adaptation responses for tangible and intangible heritage, emergency preparedness, community engagement and the importance of Indigenous and local knowledge in all aspects of response. The physical impacts outlined in the WMO report have a very clear link to people – both through the potential loss to heritage and the impacts on communities from climate-driven disturbances. If not for the wellbeing of the planet’s natural systems, our global community must act to stop the causes of continuing climate change to preserve our heritage – and ourselves."

"As the Northern Territory deals with unprecedented flooding and Cape York braces for a powerful cyclone, this report reminds us of the root cause of extreme events. We have not seen the emissions reductions agreed at the 2015 Paris conference. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are still increasing, now at the highest level for two million years.

It is clear that we face an increasingly urgent climate emergency. So we now need concerted action by all levels of government to accelerate the closure of fossil fuel power stations by investing in storage for solar and wind, to avert the crisis caused by war in the Middle East by modernising our transport system and to prohibit proposed extension of gas projects.

The 2003 report to the Howard government, National Framework for Energy Efficiency, estimated we could reduce emissions by 30 per cent, simply by using cost-effective technology. Cleaning up after extreme weather events is already costing us billions. We need to be investing now in a clean future and urging other nations also to take concerted action."

“The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate report confirms that the period from 2015 to 2025 represents the hottest 11 years on record. With a potentially significant El Niño event forming later this year, there is a real chance that 2026 and 2027 could be among the hottest years ever recorded. Most research now suggests we may have already crossed the 1.5 degree warming threshold set under the Paris Agreement more than a decade ago, a critical tipping point linked to risks such as ice sheet collapse, permafrost thaw and failure of the Amazon rainforest.

“Even seemingly small increases in temperature can have outsized effects on extreme weather. The frequency and intensity of bushfires, floods, cyclones and hailstorms are all linked to the warming of the atmosphere. At the same time, more people are living in harm’s way. The global insurance industry, operating at the intersection of climate change and the built environment, has just recorded its ninth consecutive year of above average insured losses, with extreme weather events costing the industry around $127 billion in 2025.”

“Australians know the climate system is entering unknown territory. It’s becoming hotter and life is more disrupted by extreme weather events. The WMO report confirms it. Yet Australia refuses to face up to the urgent need to build a society and an economy more resilient to climate change, ones better able to withstand the threats we know are coming.

Cutting Australia’s emissions rapidly is necessary but doing so will not change the climatic conditions future Australians will have to live through. We can’t change the global climate but we can build defences against the far-reaching and enduring damage climate change will surely bring.”

"Every year, humanity keeps emitting huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from our continued reliance on fossil fuels. These emissions, at record high levels in 2025, are pushing the planet further away from its natural state and into a new, hotter, more dangerous state.

We are causing worsening heatwaves, acidification of our oceans, rising sea levels and many other changes that will be hard to reverse even if we achieve net zero down the track. Every year of delaying strong climate action, causes more problems for the next generations."

"From a business climate risk and resilience perspective, this report reinforces that businesses are operating in a system that is becoming progressively more unstable. The introduction of Earth’s energy imbalance as a key indicator is particularly significant because it highlights that warming is not just continuing but accelerating at a systems level, driven by persistent excess energy accumulation. For businesses, the implications are material. Mitigation is becoming more urgent, because delaying emissions reductions locks in greater long-term risks. Rising ocean heat and sea levels increase physical risks to coastal assets, ports and supply chains, while more frequent and intense extreme events disrupt operations and logistics.

A critical point is that this is not a temporary shock. The persistence of warming over decades means that adaptation has to move from the margins of business strategy to its core. Firms that treat climate risk as a compliance issue and fail to integrate climate risk into their strategic planning will face growing financial and operational exposure. Importantly, many of these risks are tied to shared resilience assets such as infrastructure and public services that individual firms do not control but depend on, which will require systemic approaches to adaptation."

"A report that further confirms that global temperatures have increased is not particularly surprising. Climate scientists have been giving similar messages about global warming for decades now. However, these messages get more and more stark each time, and records continue to be broken.

"Some of the more startling details of global climate in 2025 include:

• The past 11 years are the 11 hottest years in the instrumental record.
• 2025 was the second or third warmest year on record (depending on data set used) – despite the occurrence of a La Niña event, which typically depresses global temperatures.
• Energy is accumulating in the Earth system. Although the atmosphere is clearly warming, only 1% of this excess energy is stored in the atmosphere. Over 90% has been absorbed by the planet’s oceans – and they are warming accordingly. Because oceans respond much slower to energy input compared to the atmosphere, these changes will persist for hundreds (and maybe thousands) of years, even in the case of emission reductions.

"Although this report is not written to provide policy advice, the evidence is clear that human action is increasingly destabilizing our climate. With each year that passes without more concerted action on emission reductions, we add to the problems that future generations will face. With the timing of this report coinciding with the ongoing troubles in the Middle East and rapid rises in oil prices, how much more evidence do we need to push individuals, communities and governments to accelerate our transition away from fossil fuels?"

"This report continues to confirm what climate scientists have been warning about for decades: as greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere, the planet is warming. While slightly warmer weather might sound pleasant to some of us in New Zealand, the overall costs and risks hugely outweigh any benefits.

"Warmer ocean temperatures together with melting ice is driving sea level rise, now at a rate of almost 5 mm per year (global average). But what concerns me the most is the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events (e.g. flooding, heatwaves, wildfires). These events destroy ecosystems and infrastructure, and impact human health and livelihoods, making them costly both financially and to society.

"One of the report’s indicators is glacier mass balance (the gain or loss of ice each year). Data show that eight of the ten largest mass loss years have occurred since 2016. These measurements come from ~170 glaciers worldwide, including two here in New Zealand. Glaciers are more than just climate indicators. The nearly 3,000 glaciers in Aotearoa are important taonga and are important for tourism, and their melt may impact freshwater resources and increase hazard risks."

"“Every key climate indicator is flashing red” said the U.N. Secretary General António Guterres. Exactly. The warmest years on record are the ones we’re in right now, all aspects of the climate system are warming, and all the cold bits are melting. This is all because an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases is changing the earth’s energy budget, we now have more energy coming in than going out. Increased warming goes with increased extreme events, that have consequences for communities everywhere. As is documented in the latest WMO State of the Climate report, the global community is collectively eating away at our life support system.

"The science of climate change has been well understood for a century or more and we know what we have to do to stop it. Stop burning fossil fuels. Policymakers have been advised on this for decades, yet emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases keep increasing. I hope this latest report moves the dial with the policymaking community and encourages action to reduce emissions. The costs of inaction are already astronomical, lets not make them overwhelming."

"The WMO Global Climate Report highlights the pressing need to do what we can to prepare our species and ecosystems, visitor experiences, and cultural heritage sites for the impacts they’re already facing from climate change. The report’s finding that the past 11 years were the warmest 11 years in the 176-year record underlines the urgency to build resilience now and plan for increased impacts down the line as climate change continues to intensify.

"More than 4000 of Aotearoa New Zealand’s native species are threatened with extinction or are at risk of becoming threatened. Climate change impacts – the increasingly frequent severe storms and floods, droughts, and increased fire risk – are putting many of our taonga species under even more pressure. DOC’s visitor infrastructure is already being affected and more than 400 archaeological sites and 300 of DOC's coastal assets including campgrounds and bridges are at risk from rising sea levels and coastal flooding.

"At DOC we’re taking action, for example, by building shelters for tarapirohe/black-fronted tern chicks at risk from extreme temperatures. These low-cost shelters have successfully protected fledgling chicks from temperatures over 40 degrees at their Canterbury braided river habitat. New bridges on the Heaphy Track (to replace ones that were damaged by floods) were designed to be resilient to future climate change-driven floods.

"As the record-hot climate documented in the WMO report becomes increasingly normal, DOC’s climate change adaption action plan will help to prepare for climate change risks. The report reinforces the urgency to build on our adaptation work, and highlights that adaptation is no longer optional or nice-to-have."