B.C. climate news: Bloomberg cites 14 climate trends for 2026 | Experts say 2025 likely tied as second warmest on record
Here’s all the latest local and international news concerning climate change for the week of Dec. 29 to Jan. 4, 2026.
You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.
Here’s the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss in B.C. and around the world, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems, to all the up-to-date science.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
- Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.
- Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.
- Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.
- Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.
- Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
- Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.
- Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.
- Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.
- Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.
- Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
- Access articles from across Canada with one account.
- Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.
- Enjoy additional articles per month.
- Get email updates from your favourite authors.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
- Access articles from across Canada with one account
- Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments
- Enjoy additional articles per month
- Get email updates from your favourite authors
Sign In or Create an Account
Check back every Saturday for more climate and environmental news or sign up for our Sunrise newsletter HERE.
In climate news this week:
• Experts say 2025 likely tied as second warmest on record
• Bloomberg notes 14 trends that will shape the climate in 2026
• The Associated Press captures a year of climate change impacts in photos
Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change. This causes heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, increasing the planet’s surface temperature.
The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, including researchers from B.C., has warned for decades that wildfires and severe weather, such as the province’s deadly heat dome and catastrophic flooding in 2021, would become more frequent and intense because of the climate emergency. It has issued a code red for humanity and warns the window to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial times is closing.
According to NASA climate scientists, human activities have raised the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content by 50 per cent in less than 200 years, and “there is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.”
As of Dec. 5, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 426.46 parts per million, up slightly from 424.87 ppm the previous month, according to the latest available data from the NOAA measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, a global atmosphere monitoring lab in Hawaii. The NOAA notes there has been a steady rise in CO2 from under 320 ppm in 1960.
Quick facts:
• The global average temperature in 2023 reached 1.48 C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, it breached the 1.5 C threshold at 1.55 C.
• 2025 is set to be the second or third warmest years on record after 2024, capping the 11th consecutive warmest years.
• Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850.
• The world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement target to keep global temperature from exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit to avoid the worst fallout from climate change including sea level rise, and more intense drought, heat waves and wildfires.
• UNEP’s 2025 Emissions Gap Report, released in early December, shows that even if countries meet emissions targets, global temperatures could still rise by 2.3 C to 2.5 C this century.
• In June 2025, global concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 430 parts per million, a record high.
• There is global scientific consensus that the climate is warming and that humans are the cause.
Latest News
Experts say 2025 likely tied as second warmest year on record
Last year likely tied with 2023 as the second warmest year on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
It also was the third year in a row to exceed 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the service said.
The hottest year on record globally was 2024, breaching the 1.5 C threshold at 1.55 C.
In 2024, Canada recorded temperatures 3 C above the 1961 to 1990 baseline, driven by global warming, warm ocean waters, and the El Niño phenomenon, according to the Canadian Climate Institute.
Concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and ocean heat content, which both reached record levels in 2024, continued to rise in 2025, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Arctic sea ice extent after the winter freeze was the lowest on record, and Antarctic sea ice extent tracked well below average throughout the year, according to the report.
—Tiffany Crawford
Bloomberg notes 14 trends that will shape the climate in 2026
The world is now moving into the latter half of a critical decade to fight climate change. Scientists have warned that nations need to cut carbon emissions nearly 50 per cent by 2030 to stave off 1.5 C temperature rise.
The world is woefully off track to meet those targets and risks further backsliding, even as there are some surprising sources of progress.
In the U.S., those tensions are on full display. The future of the energy transition is being shaped by President Donald Trump’s climate policy rollbacks that favour fossil fuels — but also the life support for renewables and batteries paradoxically coming from data-centre power demand.
China’s role as the world’s biggest emitter and hub for green tech are also affecting efforts to curb carbon pollution. This year, the country will set a new plan laying out how climate fits with its economic ambitions, while its booming cleantech sector is expected to help more developing countries adopt renewable energy and electric vehicles.
Fourteen themes Bloomberg News writers are keeping tabs on in 2026 include China’s decarbonization efforts, clean tech, nuclear energy, and what’s happening in the Arctic.
For the full list of topics read the Bloomberg article HERE.
—Bloomberg News
Flooding, landslides in fatal rare Southern California winter storm
A powerful winter storm lashed Southern California a week ago, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to proclaim a state of emergency in Los Angeles and neighbouring counties. Coastal communities braced for multiple months’ worth of rain in just a few days, while areas charred by wildfires faced the risk of mudslides.
“There is a moderate risk of excessive rainfall over parts of Southern California,” the U.S. Weather Prediction Center said. “Numerous flash flooding events are possible. In addition, many streams may flood, potentially affecting larger rivers.”
Three people died as a result of the storm, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The historic storm, which pummelled the region over the Christmas holiday until Saturday, prompted some evacuations in Los Angeles County and Orange County canyon communities and brought with it road closures, flooded freeways and flight delays.
—Bloomberg News
The U.K.’s Met Office has confirmed that 2025 was the country’s warmest and sunniest year on record, according to a report in The Guardian.
The report says the U.K.’s three hottest years on record have now all been in this decade, which meteorologists say is proof of a rapidly changing climate.
All of the top 10 warmest years have happened in the past two decades, according to the report.
The Met Office’s head of climate attribution Mark McCarthy told the news outlet that the U.K. is increasingly seeing temperatures break new ground in the changing climate, and that 2025 was in line with what is expected from human-induced climate change.
—The Guardian
The Associated Press has released photos from 2025 that show the affects of climate change.
From extreme heat in California’s Death Valley to a typhoon in the Philippines and Pakistan, where children were swept up in flash flooding, The Associated Press photos show heartache and resilience.
To view the photos of how climate change affected the world last year visit The Associated Press site here.
—AP
I’m a breaking news reporter but I’m also interested in writing stories about health, the environment, climate change and sustainable living, including zero-waste goals. If you have a story idea related to any of these topics please send an email to ticrawford@postmedia.com
