Global and European temperatures in 2025 ranked as the third-highest on record, according to data from the EU’s Copernicus Global Climate Highlights report.
This year sat just 0.01°C below the levels seen in 2023, and while 2024 remains the warmest year ever documented, 2025 followed closely behind with temperatures significantly higher than historical averages. Last year was also the third-warmest year on record for Europe.
The Copernicus report, coordinated with the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation and other national climate monitoring organisations, highlights that air temperatures over land were the second highest ever recorded. Both poles experienced extreme conditions: Antarctica saw its warmest annual temperature on record, while the Arctic recorded its second warmest.
Current warming trends suggests the Paris Agreement goal to limit global temperatures rises to 1.5°C could be reached by the end of this decade – more than ten years earlier than what was projected when the agreement was first signed.
The intense heat of the 2023–2025 period is linked to two primary factors. First, greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere as emissions rise and natural carbon sinks, such as forests, struggle to absorb CO2. Second, sea-surface temperatures reached unprecedented levels, fuelled by strong and warmer weather patterns and long-term ocean warming caused by climate change. These record annual temperatures came along a series of extreme weather events across the globe from record-breaking heatwaves, severe storms to devastating wildfires.
The EU Commission says it continues efforts to reach the Paris agreement objectives and is fully committed to becoming climate-neutral by 2050. It is set to present this year a new ‘European Framework for climate resilience and risk management’ to better prepare the EU for climate risks and build climate resilience.
