In 2025, global temperatures experienced a slight dip compared to the previous year, primarily due to the La Niña weather pattern's cooling effects in the Pacific Ocean. This data comes from the European Copernicus Climate Service and the Met Office, indicating that while 2025 was cooler than 2024, it was still significantly warmer than temperatures recorded just a decade ago. The ongoing rise in carbon emissions continues to exacerbate the planet's warming, pushing us closer to exceeding critical international climate targets.
According to the latest findings, the global average temperature in 2025 was more than 1.4°C above pre-industrial levels, specifically those from the late 1800s when fossil fuel consumption began to surge. This warming trend poses a serious threat, as the world aims to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels—a goal agreed upon by nearly 200 nations in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. Dr. Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, remarked that looking back on this mid-2020s period in the future will likely reveal these years as relatively cool.
Despite the cooling influence of La Niña in 2025, the year was still warmer than expected, indicating a troubling trend. Prof. Rowan Sutton from the Met Office Hadley Centre explained, “If we continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the concentrations will rise, leading to further warming.” This year's temperatures, while cooler than those in 2024, contribute to a cumulative effect that brings the world dangerously close to breaching the 1.5°C threshold.
Even though 2025 may not have been the hottest year on record, extreme weather events continued to escalate. Notable incidents, such as the devastating fires in Los Angeles and Hurricane Melissa, have been linked to the ongoing impacts of global warming. These events serve as reminders of the urgent need to address climate change, as the risks associated with rising temperatures become increasingly tangible.
Looking ahead, the data suggests that we may exceed the 1.5°C target by the end of this decade. While individual years can fluctuate due to natural variability—such as the transition between El Niño and La Niña patterns—the overarching trend remains worrying. El Niño conditions contributed to heightened temperatures in 2024 and 2023, whereas La Niña's return in 2025 has somewhat muted the warmth. However, the persistent high temperatures during a La Niña year raise concerns about underlying climate dynamics.
The last three years have shattered global temperature records by significant margins, leading scientists to contemplate the underlying causes of this unprecedented surge. Theories suggest that changes in cloud formations and the behavior of tiny particles known as aerosols may play a role by reflecting less solar energy back into space. Dr. Zeke Hausfather from Berkeley Earth remarked, “The persistence of extreme warmth into 2025 suggests that there may be mysteries we have yet to fully understand.”
While scientists anticipate that more temperature records will be broken in the future, they stress that the impacts of climate change are not predetermined. Prof. Sutton emphasizes the importance of mitigating climate change through significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and adopting adaptive strategies to enhance resilience against ongoing climatic shifts. “We can strongly affect what happens,” Sutton affirmed, underscoring the critical role of proactive measures in shaping our climate future.