Climate Change Pushing Millions to Brink

Global warming is driving millions of people to the limits of their ability to cope, as climate change intensifies extreme weather events worldwide, according to a major new report published on Tuesday.

The annual 2025 report by the World Weather Attribution initiative found that climate change has either increased the frequency of extreme weather events over the past year or made them significantly more severe.

The findings underscore the growing human cost of rising global temperatures.

The report warns that global heating is no longer a distant or theoretical threat, but a lived reality for millions of people facing repeated climate shocks. Researchers said the pace and scale of extreme weather are now pushing communities to the edge of their capacity to adapt.

Friederike Otto, a climate science professor at the Imperial College London and a co-founder of the initiative, said the dangers posed by climate change are becoming increasingly tangible. She noted that each year, climate risks move further away from abstraction and closer to brutal, everyday reality.

According to the report, researchers recorded 157 extreme weather events worldwide in 2025. These included 49 floods, 49 heatwaves, 38 storms, 11 wildfires, seven droughts and three cold spells. Events were only included if they crossed strict thresholds, such as causing more than 100 deaths, affecting over one million people, or prompting a national or regional disaster declaration.

The research team carried out in-depth attribution studies on 22 of the 157 events. It concluded that 17 of them were made more likely or more intense by climate change. For only five events, all related to heavy rainfall, the findings were inconclusive.

Among the most striking examples was a seven-day heatwave in South Sudan in February, during which temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius.

The analysis found that without climate change, temperatures would have peaked at around 36 degrees, highlighting how global warming is amplifying deadly heat extremes.

Climate experts warn that as global temperatures continue to rise, extreme weather will become more frequent and more destructive, placing unprecedented pressure on vulnerable populations and testing the limits of global adaptation and resilience efforts.