Unequal Evidence and Impacts: Limits to Adaptation to Extreme Weather in 2025

The report analyzes 22 extreme weather events in 2025, noting that despite weak La Nina conditions, global temperatures remained exceptionally high due to human-driven emissions. It emphasizes that warming of approximately 1.3°C has intensified heatwaves, droughts, and floods, with a specific focus on how women and marginalized groups bear a disproportionate burden. The document also identifies a critical gap in climate science, where a lack of observational data in the Global South hinders confident analysis of rainfall events. Finally, it argues that while adaptation is necessary, events like Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean demonstrate that adaptation has limits and cannot replace the urgent need for rapid emission reductions.

• In 2025, global temperatures remained exceptionally high due to human-driven greenhouse gas emissions, despite the presence of weak La Nina conditions and a cooler phase of natural climate variability. This warming intensified prolonged heatwaves, drought, fire weather, and extreme rainfall and winds, resulting in thousands of deaths and millions of displacements at approximately 1.3°C of anthropogenic warming.
• Since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, global warming has increased by 0.3°C, which has added an average of 11 extra hot days per year. This increase has made certain extreme heat events, such as those in the Amazon, Burkina Faso, and Mali, almost ten times more likely.
• Climate impacts are distributed unequally, with women facing disproportionate risks. In South Sudan, women are more affected by extreme heat because of their concentration in heat-exposed informal work like street vending and agriculture, combined with low literacy rates and limited resources. Globally, unpaid caring responsibilities and underrepresentation in leadership further increase women's exposure to health risks and disrupt their education.
• There is a systemic inequality in the scientific evidence base for climate change. Analysis of heavy rainfall events in the Global South is often hindered by gaps in observational data and a reliance on climate models that were primarily developed for the Global North.
• Adaptation measures have inherent limits; for example, Hurricane Melissa demonstrated that even with relatively high levels of preparedness, small islands like Jamaica and other Caribbean nations still suffer extreme losses and damage from intense storms.

APA

World Weather Attribution (2025). Unequal Evidence and Impacts: Limits to Adaptation to Extreme Weather in 2025. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/unequal-evidence-and-impacts-limits-to-adaptation-extreme-weather-in-2025/

Chicago

World Weather Attribution. Unequal Evidence and Impacts: Limits to Adaptation to Extreme Weather in 2025. 2025. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/unequal-evidence-and-impacts-limits-to-adaptation-extreme-weather-in-2025/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Weather Attribution |title=Unequal Evidence and Impacts: Limits to Adaptation to Extreme Weather in 2025 |date=29 December 2025 |url=https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/unequal-evidence-and-impacts-limits-to-adaptation-extreme-weather-in-2025/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldweatherattribution2025unequal, author = {{World Weather Attribution}}, title = {{Unequal Evidence and Impacts: Limits to Adaptation to Extreme Weather in 2025}}, institution = {World Weather Attribution}, year = {2025}, month = dec, url = {https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/unequal-evidence-and-impacts-limits-to-adaptation-extreme-weather-in-2025/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }