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A warming planet: Extreme weather rises as cities fight back with innovation

Things are getting extreme climate-wise. The year 2025 saw the world's oceans trap a record amount of heat that should have rung multiple alarm bells over the effects of this on extreme weather events, fisheries and rising sea levels. Early January also brought an unusually severe Arctic blast across Europe, causing school closures, transport chaos and heightened demand on energy grids. The unsettling trend for climate-driven disasters included destructive wildfires in Australia and Argentina. Yet, amid such challenges, cities continued to emerge as powerful laboratories for sustainability. China's Hangzhou was named one of the UN’s "Top 20 Zero-Waste Cities," recognized for reducing landfill use, digitizing waste management, and building a circular-economy system that recovers value from discarded materials.