Scientists have put forth list of most pressing issues in climate research in a report, which include gaining knowledge on why 2023-2024 were the warmest years on record, unprecedented ocean warming and dengue expanding its footprint to largest on record.
The ‘10 New Insights in Climate Science 2025/2026’ report summarises the work of an international team of scientists, including those from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who reviewed the most pressing findings in climate change research.
In January this year, the World Meteorological Organisation confirmed 2024 as the warmest year on record, which saw “exceptional land and sea surface temperatures and ocean heat”.
“While the transition to El Nino conditions helped amplify recent temperature records, these climate fluctuations alone are insufficient to explain the anomalies,” the authors write. A notable increase in the imbalance of Earth’s energy suggests global warming could be accelerating, they add. Ocean surface is warming at an unprecedented rate and marine heatwaves are intensifying.
Ocean warming is “driving severe ecological losses, eroding coastal livelihoods, and compounding risks from extreme weather, while also weakening the ocean’s role as a carbon sink,” the report states.
Neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue, have been shown to expand their geographic reach, with climate change driving conditions of high humidity and rainfall that are conducive to breeding of mosquitoes. Dengue’s potential for spreading to have increased by 49% globally, a global report shows. (PTI)
