2025 was the third-hottest year on record, scientists confirmed, as escalating fossil fuel pollution drove what experts described as “exceptional” global temperatures.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 2025 extended a three-year run of extraordinary heat, with global surface air temperatures averaging 1.48°C above preindustrial levels. The data adds to mounting evidence that the world is rapidly approaching—and likely surpassing—the 1.5°C limit set under the Paris Agreement.
The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service warned that current warming rates could breach the 1.5°C threshold before the end of this decade, more than a decade earlier than anticipated when world leaders adopted the agreement in 2015. Because the target is measured over a 30-year average, repeated annual exceedances signal a narrowing—and possibly closing—window for avoidance.
“We are bound to pass it,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus service. “The choice we now face is how to manage the inevitable overshoot and its consequences.”
The findings are based on eight independent global datasets compiled from billions of measurements collected by satellites, ships, aircraft, and weather stations. While minor variations exist, six datasets ranked 2025 as the third-hottest year on record, with the remaining two ranking it second.
The WMO’s consolidated assessment found that 2025 was 1.44°C warmer than the preindustrial era, a period before large-scale fossil fuel combustion and widespread environmental degradation accelerated global heating. The record remains held by 2024, a year marked by extreme heatwaves and devastating wildfires.
Scientists noted that natural variability played a role in amplifying recent temperatures. The UK Met Office said reductions in heat-masking aerosol pollution, combined with natural climate cycles, contributed to recent extremes. El Niño, a warming phase of the Pacific, added approximately 0.1°C to global temperatures in 2023 and 2024, accelerating what researchers describe as an abrupt temperature surge.
But experts are clear: natural fluctuations are no longer the dominant force. The underlying driver remains human activity—chiefly the burning of coal, oil, and gas—pushing the climate system ever closer to thresholds once thought distant. Read More
News Credit: The Guardian
Picture Credit: David McNew/Getty Images