Year Ender: 2025 A Destructive Year In Global Climate

By Christine Lim

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 (Bernama) -- The year 2025 has been a destructive one for the global climate, marked by extreme heatwaves, fires, catastrophic typhoons, and flooding.

According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), extreme heat - followed by dangerously high daytime and overnight temperatures - has affected millions of people around the world, underlining the importance of early warnings and heat-health action plans.

Significant heatwaves were observed in North America, triggering wildfire disasters, while Europe and many parts of Asia experienced record-breaking temperatures that posed serious health risks

The WMO cited July 2025 as the third-warmest July globally, after July 2023 and 2024, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATE EVENTS

"Extreme weather and climate-related events to August 2025 had a major global impact as compounding impacts of these events have damaged cropland, eroded livelihoods and deepened poverty, and contributed to displacement across multiple regions," WMO said in its report on the state of the global climate.

Japan observed its highest temperature of 41.8 °C at Isesaki on Aug 5. Heat records were also set in many places in China.

"The California wildfires in January resulted in 30 deaths with 260,000 evacuated, resulting in the largest ever economic losses for a wildfire event of US$40 billion," WMO noted.

The most severe impacts occurred in Pakistan, where 881 flood-related deaths have been reported as of Sept 2.

Observed ocean warming indicates that the Earth is currently out of energy balance. The rate of warming reveals how rapidly the Earth system is trapping surplus energy in the form of heat, with more than 90 per cent of that energy absorbed by the oceans.

The WMO warned that ocean warming has far-reaching consequences, including the degradation of marine ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, and a weakening of the ocean's role as a carbon sink.

"It intensifies tropical and subtropical storms, accelerates sea-ice loss in the polar regions, and – together with melting land ice – drives sea-level rise. This warming is projected to continue, representing a change that is irreversible on centennial to millennial timescales."

Scientific reports have also indicated that extreme ocean heat fuelled massive typhoons and flooding.

Super Typhoon Ragasa - known as Nando in the Philippines - battered China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam in September, was known as the world's strongest tropical cyclone in 2025, according to various news reports.

Ragasa caused flooding, evacuations for injuries, deaths, and economic losses.

Although a prophecy of a July mega-earthquake in Japan by a manga artist did not materialise, Japan experienced a series of strong earthquakes in December, mainly in the northeastern region, triggering tsunami alerts, mild injuries and evacuations.

PARIS AGREEMENT

The WMO said global climate predictions indicate that temperatures are expected to remain at or near record levels over the next five years, increasing climate risks and impacts on societies, economies, and sustainable development.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to keeping the increase in long-term global average surface temperature well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) and to pursuing efforts to limit the rise to 1.5 °C.

"The scientific community has repeatedly warned that warming of more than 1.5°C risks unleashing far more severe climate change impacts and extreme weather, and every fraction of a degree of warming matters,” the WMO stated.

COP30

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30) was held in Brazil in November to address the climate crisis and advance the goals of the Paris Agreement.

It was reported that, while COP30 achieved some progress, including a target to increase adaptation finance to US$120 billion per year, funding levels remain far below the needs of developing countries.

There is also a lack of roadmaps to phase out fossil fuels and halt deforestation.

Institute of Strategic & International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, Climate, Environment and Energy, Researcher Zayana Zaikariah, said COP30's agreement to triple adaptation finance by 2035 also does not provide clarity on how funding would be mobilised.

"This is a critical concern for developing economies already facing fiscal constraints," she told Bernama.

"For ASEAN and the rest of the developing world, COP30 offers incremental progress, but not the scale and certainty of support required to underpin a credible and timely green transition," she added.

There are also reports on whether financing would support the climate agenda rather than serve commercial and non-climate motives.

ISIS Climate, Environment and Energy Senior Researcher, Kieran Li Nair, said COP remains one of the most crucial platforms for multilateral climate governance.

"It is at times a slow and frustrating process, but for some, it is the only platform where stakeholders can come together and have their voices represented at such an elevated stage.

What is needed continues to be what developing nations and civil society observers have been calling for: developed nations to fulfil their end of the climate debt, and deliver their share of finance, technology transfer, capacity-building and climate cooperation.

Only then can the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C target be delivered," she told Bernama.

Among the notable achievements at COP30 were decisions on a just transition mechanism to enhance technical assistance, a financing facility for nature and tropical forests with over US$6.7 billion in commitments, and the establishment of 59 indicators to assess climate adaptation.

COP31 is set to take place in Turkiye next year, with Turkiye leading the Action Agenda and Australia designated as the Presidency of negotiations.

Kieran said the means of implementation remain urgently needed.

"Meanwhile, civil society and other observers have increasingly called for COP reform to ensure the conference remains fit for purpose," she noted.

ASEAN'S CLIMATE STRATEGIES & MALAYSIA'S LEADERSHIP ROLE

Within ASEAN, Zayana highlighted the political will among member states to coordinate and implement strategies to address climate disasters.

"Vulnerability of the region towards climate disasters stems less from a lack of strategy than from weak operational coherence.

At present, the gap lies in a shift in governance from reactive, nationally siloed responses to proactive, regionally integrated systems.

Transboundary risks such as shared river basins and storm pathways require joint infrastructure planning and pooled financing for effective partnership in addressing climate disasters," she shared.

Zayana noted that Malaysia has played a convening role by unifying ASEAN’s position ahead of COP30 and aligning regional priorities with the global agenda through multiple ministerial meetings.

"However, translating this diplomatic coherence into tangible regional outcomes will ultimately depend on Malaysia's ability to demonstrate credible domestic implementation and sustain collective follow-through among ASEAN members," according to Zayana.

This is as Malaysia, Zayana noted, already has the policy architecture in place, especially with the number of climate-related policies.

"But the challenge now is institutional coherence and financing. A clear whole-of-government mandate is vital, supported by measurable indicators and interagency accountability.

What's important now is for the country to scale up green finance through well-structured public-private partnerships and embed climate risk into economic planning to determine whether targets could evolve beyond symbolic commitments," she added.

Malaysia's key climate policies include the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) 2.0, a framework for Malaysia's transition towards a low-carbon economy and climate-resilient development.

Its climate policy ecosystem also includes renewable energy, grid modernisation for interconnections with the ASEAN region for clean energy and energy efficiency regulations that promote environmental goals, including carbon neutrality by 2050.

"There are initiatives like the Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS) to increase renewable energy uptake and also increase grid investments.

These are attempts to ensure that digital economy engines pull the country toward sustainability rather than away from it.

The key will be rigorous implementation by requiring new data centres to procure green energy and rapidly scaling up Malaysia's own renewable energy capacity to meet rising demand," according to Zayana.

She emphasised that the government must remain vigilant to ensure that incentives for green energy are sufficiently strong and, if necessary, adjust policies to keep this resource consumption on a sustainable path.

Currently, schemes such as CRESS aim to encourage the uptake of renewable energy, but participation is not mandatory, and grid emissions remain high.

To align data centre expansion with net-zero goals, this country needs to ensure these facilities are powered by actual clean energy and that energy infrastructure keeps up with domestic and non-domestic demands," she added.

Malaysia has pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through a transition to cleaner energy resources, as outlined in the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR).

CLIMATE OUTLOOK

According to the WMO report, climate indicators continue to signal alarm, but there is good news: renewable energy is expanding.

It noted that climate-related drivers are shaping the supply and demand for renewable energy.

"2025 is on track to be the second or third warmest year on record, and the last 11 years, including 2025, will individually have been the 11 warmest years on record.

"We are not on track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement," the specialised agency of the United Nations stated.

-- BERNAMA