Global average temperatures are likely to continue at or near record levels in the next five years, with Arctic temperature anomalies expected to continue to be higher than the global mean, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), produced by the UK’s Met Office. The Global Annual-to-Decadal Update also takes a look at the observed climate over the past five years and gives regional predictions for temperatures and precipitation over the next five years.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has published A Well-Adapted UK. This new report sets out a comprehensive package of solutions to address the growing impacts of climate change affecting every aspect of life in the UK. The country’s independent climate advisors identify better cooling, flood protection and a more secure water supply as the most critical priorities to protect the UK from the three biggest climate risks – heat, flooding and drought.
The European Commission has adopted the Fertiliser Action Plan: an initiative to support farmers facing rising fertiliser costs and scarcity, reinforce domestic production and reduce Europe's dependency on imports. The Plan will directly help to ensure food security and reinforce Europe's strategic autonomy, while pursuing high climate and environmental goals.
The UK, alongside co-hosts South Africa, British International Investment and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, have convened a broad coalitions of partners, from governments, international organisations, business, technology philanthropy and civil society to rethink how to combine strengths in addressing global challenges, such as economic, climate and health shocks.
New World Resources Institute (WRI) analysis, supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, reveals that every $1 invested in preparing for climate-caused health risks can yield up to $68 in benefits for communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Research shows how tools and services like early warning systems and disease surveillance significantly reduce deaths and illness, helping more communities in low- and middle-income countries become more resilient.
Rapid warming in Europe is reducing snow and ice cover, while dangerously high air temperatures, drought, heatwaves and record ocean temperatures are affecting regions from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. Europe, along with many other regions of the globe, is exposed to increasing impacts – from record heatwaves on land and at sea, to devastating wildfires, and continuing biodiversity loss – with consequences for societies and ecosystems across Europe.
Military spending has been increasing for more than a decade, reaching $2.7tr in 2024 and $2.88tr in 2025. Meanwhile, there is a $4tr dollar shortfall in funding needed to achieve the world’s Sustainable Development Goals and, of that, a $2tr funding gap for climate and energy transition action.
Climate targets require strong commitments from countries to be achieved. Using a multi-model analysis, new research shows that current net-zero pledges bring the world closer to a well-below 2 °C pathway, but an emission gap remains. Increasing ambition will be crucial: expanding the global coverage of net-zero pledges and speeding up action increases consistency with the Paris Agreement (1.5–2.0 °C range in model mean).
The World Bank Group, in partnership with multilateral development banks, development finance institutions and key partners, has launched Water Forward, a global platform to help improve water security for 1bn people by 2030. The platform will align policy reforms, financing, and partnerships to expand reliable water services and strengthen systems against droughts and floods, essential conditions for job creation.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) has selected 30 new projects under the 2025 EIC Pathfinder Challenges Call for cutting edge research projects delivering breakthroughs in four strategic areas: biotech for climate resilient crops and plant-based biomanufacturing; generative-AI based agents to revolutionise medical diagnosis; robot collectives; and waste-to-value devices - circular production of renewable fuels, chemicals, and materials.
How much heat, flooding, drought and storms increase as a result of human-induced climate change can be calculated, according to a study by Gottfried Kirchengast and his team at the University of Graz. It can compute all relevant hazard metrics in any region worldwide. The researchers found that anthropogenic climate change has caused a tenfold increase in extreme heat in recent decades.
Severe convective storms (SCS) have surpassed tropical cyclones to become the costliest insured peril of the 21st century, according to Aon's annual Climate and Catastrophe Insight report. The report shows how increasingly common, high-volume events are reshaping global loss patterns and highlights the critical importance of both physical and financial resilience to help organisations manage volatility and unlock insurability.
The UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association’s (UKSIF’s) institutional investor members were surveyed in November 2025 to gauge the investment community’s experience and use of sustainability data from investee companies and wider assets. Sustainability data – specifically the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information that companies and assets disclose – is increasingly crucial for financial markets.
The European Commission has unveiled a first set of pilot actions to accelerate Europe's transition to a circular economy, with a particular focus on the plastics sector. The Commission says that by optimising the recycling of plastics, these measures will further unlock the potential of the Single Market and enhance the EU's economic security, strategic autonomy, competitiveness and environmental sustainability.
Every December, the World Weather Attribution (WWA) asks: was it a bad year for extreme weather? And each year, the answer becomes more unequivocal: yes. Fossil fuel emissions continue to rise, driving global temperatures upward and fuelling increasingly destructive climate extremes across every continent. Although 2025 was slightly cooler than 2024 globally, it was still far hotter than almost any other year on record and the impacts of this hotness were unmistakable.