Media coverage

Global average temperatures are likely to continue at or near record levels this year and for the next four years afterwards, the United Nations warned Thursday. Climate Analytics' CEO Bill Hare said, "Our research shows that if governments act now to reduce their emissions as quickly as possible, global warming can be halted by mid-century and then returned well below the Paris Agreement limit of 1.5°C."

“This is just physics,” said climate scientist Bill Hare, “we’re losing the ability to limit warming even by two degrees without strong action and people need to be aware of that and be aware that it’s a political failure. It’s not an act of God or anything. It is just because politicians in many places are not acting fast enough.”

Research presented at the 2026 European Geosciences Union General Assembly has unveiled alarming new data on the escalating risks posed by climate change to millions of pilgrims undertaking the Hajj pilgrimage in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Climate Analytics’ Bill Hare warns that a failure to align the the IPCC cycle with the global stocktake could result in less robust science being considered:

“There’s a general consensus that the IPCC is the best available science. It is the formal science, if you like, delivered to the Paris Agreement and climate convention. So, if that doesn’t happen, then it opens the space for other sources of so-called science to come in.” 

Dr Bill Hare, CEO and senior scientist at Climate Analytics, tells Carbon Brief that “the majority of countries, across geographies and levels of development, including least developed countries and small island developing states” support a timeline where the AR7 reports align with the stocktake.

“This is a groundbreaking scientific study," says Bill Hare, "most previous assessments of the impacts of sea level rise based on satellite data have likely systematically underestimated exposure to severe risks, as well as the rate at which these risks will increase in the future."

Pacific adaptation and loss and damage analyst Gabriel Mara told Die Zeit "if sea-level rise is faster than currently assumed, then losses will also occur faster than our planning and forecasting models predict," says Mara. The consequences of climate change could therefore be more severe for many countries in the Global South than they have anticipated – and than they have been able to prepare for.

“We are in the hottest decade at the moment,” said Fahad Saeed. He adds that just because 2025 didn’t take the top spot, it doesn’t mean regional records weren’t broken.

Nepal’s negotiator Manjeet Dhakal says that after many rounds of interventions and support from other highland nations, the term ‘mountains’ has been included in the new Global Stocktake text.