00:00The last decade has been the hottest ever, with scientists warning that we're dangerously close to a key climate limit,
00:07according to a new United Nations weather report.
00:102015 to 2025 recorded the highest temperatures on record.
00:14Last year was the second or third hottest.
00:172024 holds the number one spot.
00:20The United Nations Secretary General says this 11-year record is a sign of climate emergency.
00:26So global temperatures now hovering around that critical 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold,
00:33scientists set back in 2015, and that's seen as a tipping point for irreversible climate damage.
00:40Glaciers are melting fast, especially in Iceland and North America.
00:44Increased sea levels are risking coastal populations, as well as food and freshwater security.
00:50Let's talk to Claire Ransom from the United Nations Weather Agency in Geneva.
00:55Claire, welcome.
00:57Just tell us more, first of all, about the speed, perhaps, and the extent of global warming between 2015 and
01:042025.
01:06Hi, Jamie. Thanks. It's great to be here.
01:08And unfortunately, with rather bad news, but you've said it, the past 11 years have been the warmest on record
01:13from 2015 to 2025.
01:15And we're seeing that there are signs of acceleration across the climate system, not just in warming on lands, but
01:22also worryingly warming in the oceans.
01:25Ocean warming has more than doubled compared to previous decades.
01:28And that is also contributing to rates of sea level rise that are also nearly doubled from when their measurements
01:34began in the early 90s.
01:36And this is not just happening across the oceans.
01:38This is also, we're seeing kind of record extents occurring in our cryosphere.
01:43So in our frozen world, our glaciers are losing mass like never before.
01:47They have had some of the most extreme losses have occurred within the past decade or so.
01:53And underpinning all of this, of course, is the increasing rates of greenhouse gas concentrations.
01:58We are unfortunately not slowing down.
02:01Extents, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was actually the largest increase from 2023 to 2024 on record.
02:09So the picture is very clear.
02:11Changes are not only continuing, they're intensifying.
02:14Is it all too late to change this and turn it around?
02:18No, it is not.
02:19It's very, very important.
02:21And thank you for that question.
02:22We do know that we have committed to some very long-lasting changes that are irreversible on human timescales.
02:29For example, ocean warming is now something that we will not be able to turn back on for centuries to
02:33millennia.
02:34But we do know that every fraction of a degree of warming matters.
02:38Risks increase with each increment.
02:41And so our future trajectory is still very much in our hands.
02:44And the choices that are made today will very much determine how severe the impacts of tomorrow will be.
02:49The world, as we've been reporting on this program, is seeing some awful crises around the world.
02:54I wonder how they deflect attention and coverage from climate issues like this.
03:04It's true that the world is very much facing multiple overlapping crises right now.
03:08It's hard to deny.
03:09But climate change doesn't pause and it's going to continue to unfold alongside many of these other crises.
03:15And in many cases, it's actually amplifying existing risks, whether that's to food security or to displacement, economic stability.
03:22We're actually seeing that in many cases, climate change is really impacting and compounding existing vulnerabilities of populations all around
03:29the world.
03:30So rather than competing for attention, it's really clear that climate action needs to be part of how we respond
03:36to these broader global challenges that we're seeing today.
03:38You know, you know, there are still plenty of people, some of them in places, if I might say, who
03:43don't buy any of this.
03:44What's your message to them?
03:46That we are working with the scientific community as much as we can to really demonstrate just how much we
03:53know within the scientific world and that there is very clear consensus among everybody in the scientific community that climate
04:01change is very much real and it is very much happening.
04:04We're doing everything we can here at WMO and within the broader UN system to fight mis and disinformation because
04:10it is really a growing problem within our sector.
04:13Claire, good to talk to you. Thanks so much for coming on the programme.
04:16Claire Ransom from the United Nations Weather Agency in Geneva.
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