Context: The World Weather Attribution (WWA) Annual Report 2025 warns that climate change-driven extremes in 2025 pushed millions of people close to the limits of adaptation, despite La Niña conditions.
About The World Weather Attribution Annual Report 2025:
What it is?
- World Weather Attribution (WWA) is an international scientific collaboration that analyses how human-induced climate change influences extreme weather events such as heatwaves, floods, storms, droughts and wildfires.
Key findings (2025):
- Heatwaves intensified sharply: Heatwaves since 2015 have become significantly more intense, with some events nearly 10 times more likely, showing that even small increases in global temperature have outsized impacts.
- Crossing the 1.5°C threshold: The three-year global average temperature is projected to cross the 1.5°C limit for the first time, despite 2025 being a La Niña year, underlining the strength of long-term warming trends.
- Limits of adaptation reached: Several extreme events revealed that adaptation measures are no longer sufficient for vulnerable populations, especially in the Global South.
- Inequality in climate impacts: Marginalised communities were systematically the worst affected, while data gaps and weak climate models limited analysis of many Global South events.
- Extreme event profile (2025):
- 157 humanitarian-impact events identified
- Heatwaves and floods (49 each) most frequent
- Storms (38), wildfires (11), droughts (7)
- Heatwaves emerged as the deadliest hazard, with tens of thousands of deaths in single events.
Relevance for UPSC Exam Syllabus:
- GS Paper I (Geography):
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- Climate change impacts on weather patterns, heatwaves, floods, droughts
- Regional vulnerability and human geography dimensions of climate extremes
- GS Paper III (Environment, Disaster Management):
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- Climate change and extreme weather attribution
- Limits of adaptation vs mitigation debate
- Disaster risk reduction and climate resilience
