Synonyms of the "Recent" to avoid appearing twice in a sentence

It's not quite a synonym as the meaning of the word is not quite the same, but you could use the word "current", to refer to what's happening to the recent climate is quite likely still happening. Or if you want a more recent-like sounding replacement, go into the specifics about what the part of "recent years" entail. If you can find that answer you can change it to "the last two years", "the last decade" or "the last couple of years";if you want to keep it vague.