World Weather Attribution analysis confirmed 2025 as one of the three hottest years on record, with the three-year temperature average exceeding the 2015 Paris Agreement's 1.5°C warming target for the first time. Heatwaves emerged as the deadliest extreme weather events of 2025, with some events 10 times more likely than a decade ago due to human-caused climate change. Scientists identified 157 severe extreme weather events, including prolonged droughts fuelling wildfires across Greece and Turkey, torrential rains killing dozens in Mexico, Super Typhoon Fung-wong forcing over 1 million Philippine evacuations, and monsoon-triggered floods and landslides across India. The analysis underscores that increasingly frequent and severe extremes compress warning times and adaptation capacity. Experts stress aggressive emissions reductions remain essential to prevent irreversible cascades across ecosystems and human systems dependent on climatic stability.

Flooding emerged as 2025's foremost climate hazard, devastating Southeast Asia, North America, the Middle East, and beyond, killing thousands and displacing millions. Indonesia's December floods killed 961, obliterating 20 villages and destroying rice fields, dams, and bridges. Texas flash floods in July killed 100+, with the Guadalupe River exceeding 1987 record levels; Morocco, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Mexico all experienced severe flooding-triggered disasters. US data revealed that January–September 2025 had the highest flood and flash-flood events and casualties for five years. Climate change intensifies monsoons and rainfall extremes; rising temperatures hold more atmospheric moisture, accelerating glacial melting and increasing glacial lake outburst flood frequency. Yet experts stress climate change alone does not explain disaster severity. Urbanisation and infrastructure designed for historical—now-obsolete—flood frequencies compound meteorological hazards into catastrophic outcomes.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk and Professor Joyeeta Gupta, co-chair of the Earth Commission, repositioned climate impacts from environmental to human rights violations, arguing that 1.5°C—much less 2°C—violates the rights of over 100 million people. For small island states facing saltwater intrusion, rising seas, and erasure, 1.5°C represents an existential threat; Gupta's research establishes 1°C as the just boundary beyond which irreversible harm becomes systematic human rights deprivation. Climate justice and development remain inseparable: realising basic rights—water, food, housing, electricity—requires substantial energy. The International Court of Justice's landmark advisory opinion clarified that climate obligations must integrate human rights and environmental agreements, establishing that continued fossil-fuel use may constitute internationally wrongful acts. This framing demands immediate climate action, not as environmental stewardship but as a human survival imperative.

Portugal's 2025 wine harvest plummeted 14% to 5.9 million hectolitres—the lowest in five years and 16% below the five-year average—as climate volatility wreaked devastation across wine-growing regions. A dry winter flipped to record spring rainfall, creating fungal disease pressure; summer heatwaves then dehydrated stressed vines, creating climate-change volatility. The Douro Valley fell 34%, Alentejo and Algarve each 20%, and Trás-os-Montes 18%, while only the Azores (+221%) and Beira Interior (+2%) grew. Fewer litres tighten global supply as inventories normalise, potentially repositioning Portuguese wines up the value ladder—critical for ViniPortugal's €1.2 billion overseas sales target by 2030. Producers are fighting back through deficit irrigation, heat-tolerant grapes, regenerative cover crops, and disease-monitoring sensors; however, meteorologists warn that another La Niña cycle could repeat volatility.

Despite possessing 94,500 cubic metres of water availability per capita—among the world's highest—Bhutan faces a mounting water security crisis, according to the Royal Audit Authority's performance audit covering. While large rivers flow through valleys, 7,399 communities depend on local springs, streams, and ponds. The audit found climate adaptation efforts remain reactive, with outdated infrastructure and limited climate-resilient technology adoption. Despite strong commitments—including 2009 carbon-neutrality pledges—implementation lags critically: Bhutan's first National Adaptation Plan lacks monitoring and evaluation frameworks, the Climate Change Coordination Committee remains non-functional, and no reporting occurs to the National Climate Change Committee, yielding fragmented efforts and accountability gaps. The audit calls for operationalising governance mechanisms, strengthening agency collaboration, and investing in human resources and technology.

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