Global temperatures reached alarming levels in 2025, making it the third-hottest year ever recorded, according to US researchers and European climate monitors. The past 11 years have now ranked as the warmest on record, with 2024 taking first place and 2023 second, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and California-based Berkeley Earth reported Wednesday.
In 2025, average global temperatures stood 1.47ºC above pre-industrial levels, slightly cooler than the 1.6ºC recorded in 2024. The warming affected millions worldwide, with an estimated 770 million people living through record-hot annual conditions. No region reported record-cold averages, highlighting the scale of the ongoing heat surge.
Antarctica recorded its hottest year ever, while the Arctic experienced its second-highest temperatures, according to Copernicus. Central Asia, the Sahel region, and northern Europe also saw their hottest years on record, an analysis of Copernicus data by AFP revealed.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that surpassing the 1.5ºC warming threshold is now “inevitable.” Scientists have long cited the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to well below 2ºC, ideally keeping it at 1.5ºC, as critical to avoiding the worst effects of climate change. Copernicus said the 1.5ºC threshold could be reached by the end of the decade, more than ten years earlier than previously predicted.
Experts say the upward trend is likely to continue in 2026. Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, noted that if the El Niño weather phenomenon develops this year, global temperatures could set new records. Berkeley Earth predicts 2026 could rank as the fourth-warmest year since 1850, with little chance of a reversal in the overall warming trend.
Rising greenhouse gas emissions are a key factor driving the heat surge. In the United States, emissions climbed last year after two years of decline, driven by higher energy demand from cold winters and the technology sector. Emissions reductions in Germany and France have also slowed. Berkeley Earth chief scientist Robert Rohde said the recent spike in temperatures suggests additional factors beyond greenhouse gases and natural variability may be amplifying warming. Changes in international regulations, such as cuts to sulphur in ship fuel, may have unintentionally contributed by reducing aerosols that reflect sunlight away from Earth.
The warnings from Copernicus and Berkeley Earth come amid continued global challenges in cutting emissions. Scientists say urgent action is needed to curb greenhouse gas outputs and slow the acceleration of climate change, but the data make clear that the planet’s temperature rise shows no sign of slowing.
