Last year marked the third-highest global temperatures ever recorded, European scientists confirmed, with no significant cooling expected in 2026.
Data released Wednesday by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts showed that the planet’s average temperature in 2025 was 1.47 degrees Celsius (2.52 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. This continues a trend in which the past 11 years have been the warmest on record, reports Al Jazeera.
According to the intergovernmental weather monitoring agency, 2025 was just 0.13C (0.234F) cooler than 2024, the hottest year ever recorded, and 0.01C (0.018F) below 2023, the second-warmest year.
For the first time, average temperatures across 2023-2025 exceeded the 1.5C (2.7F) threshold outlined in the Paris Agreement over a three-year span, the data revealed.
Separate records from the UK Met Office also ranked 2025 as the third-warmest year in history. “The long-term increase in global annual average temperature is driven by the human-induced rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” said Met Office climate scientist Colin Morice.
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are expected to publish their latest global temperature figures later Wednesday.
At the 2015 Paris summit, nearly 200 nations pledged to keep global warming below 1.5C (2.7F). However, ongoing temperature rises have cast doubt on the feasibility of that target.
The US, the world’s second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, announced early last year that it would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, one of President Donald Trump’s first executive decisions. Meanwhile, China, the world’s top polluter, introduced an official target to reduce emissions in September, but experts criticised it as insufficient.
In October, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the planet would inevitably overshoot the 1.5C (2.7F) threshold as he stressed the need for early warning systems to protect communities across the globe.
