Have we forgotten about global warming when the world is getting increasingly hotter? The planet has just passed through the hottest 11-year stretch ever measured, and scientists say the pattern is no longer a temporary spike.
A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirms that the last 11 years from 2015 to 2025 are the warmest on record for Planet Earth. This aligns with independent analyses from groups such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA, all pointing to the same conclusion: global temperatures are rising steadily. This is not a blip or an episode we can blame on El Niño alone.
For the first time, the WMO report highlights a key metric that explains why and it’s about Earth’s energy imbalance. Scientists have measured the difference between incoming solar radiation and the heat Earth emits back into space. That imbalance is now at its highest level since observations began around 1960.
“The energy imbalance is the most fundamental measure of climate change,” says James Hansen, one of the first scientists to warn publicly about global warming.
Research published in Nature Climate Change and related journals shows that this imbalance has been accelerating, driven primarily by greenhouse gas emissions. Hansen says this year will be particularly warm because of a projected Super El Niño.
In practical terms, Earth is absorbing more heat than it can release. The excess energy doesn’t disappear it accumulates, and right now that is mostly happening in the oceans. This leads to coral bleaching, and other effects that can kill great deals of fish and important sea life.
At the same time, atmospheric carbon dioxide has reached unprecedented levels. According to data compiled by the WMO and NOAA, CO₂ concentrations in 2024 were higher than at any point in at least two million years, based on ice core and sediment records. This sharp increase is directly linked to the continued burning of fossil fuels and land-use changes.
The consequences are already visible. A growing body of research in journals such as Nature and Nature Geoscience shows that more than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases is stored in the oceans. This hidden warming drives marine heatwaves, coral bleaching, and changes in ocean circulation.
It also amplifies extreme weather on land. Warmer oceans feed more powerful storms, while higher atmospheric temperatures increase the intensity of rainfall and drought cycles. Wildfire seasons are lengthening, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe.
Scientists emphasize that the concept of energy imbalance helps explain why warming continues even when year-to-year temperatures fluctuate. “As long as the planet is out of energy balance, more warming is in the pipeline,” Hansen and colleagues have noted in recent studies.
This means the last decade is a new baseline and there will be cascading effects across ecosystems, water systems, agriculture and human health.
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