A warm 2025 has contributed to a three-year temperature average that, for the first time, surpassed an important threshold set by a landmark international treaty 10 years ago. Scientists are worried about what could come next.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service — also known as C3S — said in early December that the year was on course to become the "joint-second warmest" on record. The warming observed over the past three years is particularly notable, as its average exceeds the level the 2015 Paris Agreement intended to prevent surpassing.
"For November, global temperatures were 1.54°C above pre-industrial levels, and the three-year average for 2023-2025 is on track to exceed 1.5°C for the first time," said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, in an early-December press release from C3S.
"These milestones are not abstract — they reflect the accelerating pace of climate change and the only way to mitigate future rising temperatures is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
Researchers in a new report on the year's worst extreme weather events are also sounding the alarm about the need to act quickly to combat the dire impacts of an overheating planet, including "the urgent necessity of accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels."
"Every December we are asked the same question: Was it a bad year for extreme weather?" the co-authors of the World Weather Attribution report wrote. "And each year, the answer becomes more unequivocal: Yes. Fossil fuel emissions continue to rise, driving global temperatures upward and fueling increasingly destructive climate extremes across every continent."
Key messages from the WWA report include the "concerning levels" of extreme weather events that affected our planet in 2025. These included intensified heat waves, prolonged droughts, and increased rainfall and flooding, which contributed to thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions of people, the co-authors said.
"The geopolitical weather is very cloudy this year with a lot of policymakers very clearly making policies for the interest of the fossil fuel industry rather than for the populations of their countries," scientist Friederike Otto, co-founder of WWA, told the Associated Press in its coverage of the report. "And we have a huge amount of mis- and disinformation that people have to deal with."
Meanwhile, end-of-year reports like those from C3S and WWA represent researchers' efforts to make accurate, credible information more accessible to the public. Staying up to date on the state of planetary warming — including looking back at past years' tragedies and triumphs — can be a galvanizing step for powerful world leaders and influential locals alike.
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