2025 Poised to Become Earth’s Second-Hottest Year

The year 2025 is on track to rank as the second-warmest year ever recorded, tied with 2023 and surpassed only by 2024’s unprecedented temperatures, according to new projections from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

If confirmed, 2025 would mark the first time in history that global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for three consecutive years, a threshold measured against the 1850–1900 baseline when large-scale fossil fuel combustion began. C3S data, which extends back to 1940, is calibrated with global records reaching to 1850.

The sustained rise in global temperatures underscores deepening challenges in meeting international climate targets. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries committed to limiting global warming to 1.5°C to avert the most severe climate impacts. 

The United Nations has since warned that achieving this goal is no longer feasible without immediate and drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientists attribute the continued warming primarily to emissions from burning fossil fuels. Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at C3S, said the new milestones illustrate an accelerating pace of climate change, adding that the only viable path to stabilizing planetary temperatures is the rapid reduction of greenhouse gas output.

Global efforts to curb emissions suffered a setback last month when governments failed to agree on meaningful new commitments during the COP30 summit in Brazil. At the same time, several major economies, including the United States, scaled back climate-mitigation measures.

Extreme weather disasters intensified across the globe this year, affecting nations such as the Philippines, Spain, Greece, and Indonesia, and resulting in thousands of fatalities. Earlier assessments by the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that the last decade was the warmest since records began.

November 2025 registered an average global temperature of 14.02°C, the third-warmest November ever recorded and 1.54°C above pre-industrial levels. The Arctic Ocean experienced exceptionally high temperatures, while Europe logged its fifth-warmest November on record. This autumn now ranks among the continent’s four warmest seasons.