The future we’ve feared is already here. In a new report, researchers detail how grim the climate crisis has become in 2026, and how Earth’s climate system continues to plunge farther and faster into terrible new territory.
“Rapid destabilization is now a diagnosis rather than a warning for the future,” says co-lead author William Ripple, an ecologist at the Oregon State University College of Forestry.
Climate change can still get even worse, of course, and humanity still has cards to play. The report notes “important signs of societal and technological transformation are also emerging,” albeit not quickly or broadly enough.
“The accelerating expansion of renewable energy and advances in battery storage are encouraging, but they are only part of the transformation needed to stabilize the climate system,” Ripple says.
“A more resilient and sustainable future depends heavily on big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, effective adaptation, and ecosystem protection.”
The report comes from an international coalition of climate scientists, marking the seventh annual update in the researchers’ “state of the climate” series.
The goal is to illuminate key vital signs of Earth along with human activities that affect them, the authors explain, but also to provide context and guidance.
“Documenting change is no longer enough,” they write. “We must also communicate what it means and what actions are needed. As scientists, we have a responsibility to communicate these realities with clarity and urgency.”
The authors include renowned climate experts: Michael Mann from the University of Pennsylvania, Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick of the Australian National University, Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Anjal Prakash of FLAME University, among others.
Of 16 climate indicators the coalition tracks, seven have reached record extremes, the report finds, while several others also show troubling trends.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, for example, exceeded 428 parts per million in May – higher than at any point in the last 2 million years.
Rising CO2 levels are driven largely by humanity’s CO2 emissions, which have also soared in recent centuries. Today’s atmospheric CO2 is about 50 percent higher than it was in the late 18th century, before the Industrial Revolution, the report notes.
Meanwhile, the rate of global warming appears to be speeding up, too, having risen from 0.19 degrees Celsius per decade between 1970 and 2010 to about 0.36 °C per decade since.
Glacier thickness and Greenland ice mass have fallen to record lows, releasing surges of meltwater that, along with thermal expansion of seawater, are raising sea levels around the world.
Climate change is also boosting the risk of wildfire, which reduced global tree cover by 10.8 million hectares in 2025, the third-highest total on record. Since wildfires release greenhouse gases, this trend raises the specter of a dangerous feedback loop.
And yet we’re still digging deeper. Fossil fuel consumption increased by 0.9 percent in 2025, the authors report, with oil, coal, and natural gas all reaching record highs. Annual energy-related CO2 emissions also exceeded 41 gigatonnes for the first time, they note.
“Many climate solutions are already technically feasible and increasingly cost competitive, but because climate change is driven by interconnected energy, economic, ecological and social systems, truly meaningful progress will likely depend on integrated responses across multiple sectors and scales,” Ripple says.
Wind and solar power now provide increasingly viable alternatives, hinting at the dawn of a new clean-energy era in which fossil fuels quickly lose their luster.
While that is encouraging, the researchers acknowledge, it’s not enough.
“With low-carbon sources now providing about 43 percent of global electricity, we may be witnessing the emergence of what we call the ‘Age of Electricity,'” says co-lead author Christopher Wolf, a data scientist at Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates.
“That is a reason for hope, but fossil fuel use and emissions are still at record levels, so the transition needs to accelerate dramatically.”
That means not just chipping away at the mess we’ve made, but embracing clean energy the way previous generations went all-in on fossil fuels.
“Achieving the necessary emissions reductions and societal shifts at the speed and scale required depends on deep transformations in energy generation, consumption patterns, food systems, economic priorities, and governance structures, in ways that also promote biodiversity protection,” Wolf says.
“Without those transformations, we won’t be able to stabilize the climate system and reduce the risk of crossing dangerous Earth system tipping points.”
The research has been published in BioScience.
This article was fact-checked by Rebecca Dyer and edited by Rebecca Dyer. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know.
