The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), operating under the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), has published its findings on global temperature dynamics in 2025.
According to the report, the global average surface temperature last year was measured at 14.97 degrees Celsius. This represents an increase of 1.47 degrees compared to the pre-industrial average. As a result, 2025 became the third warmest year on record in terms of global land surface temperatures.
In 2024, the warmest year on record, global temperatures rose by 1.6 degrees above the pre-industrial average. In 2023, the second warmest year on record, temperatures were 1.48 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Copernicus estimates that the current long-term global warming level is approximately 1.4 degrees above the pre-industrial average.
Based on the current rate of warming, there is a risk that the Paris Agreement target of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees could be exceeded by 2030, potentially around 10 years earlier than previously expected.
HOTTEST YEARS CONCENTRATED IN THE LAST 11 YEARS
Following last year's temperatures, the past 11 years have all ranked as the hottest years on record globally.
Additionally, the 2023–2025 period has been recorded as the first three-year span in which average global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
In 2025, the world experienced its second warmest year in terms of air temperatures, while sea surface temperatures reached 20.73 degrees Celsius, making it the third warmest year on record for oceans.
Antarctica recorded its warmest annual temperature on record, while the Arctic experienced its second warmest year.
Due to ongoing global warming, 2025 was marked by extraordinary conditions worldwide, including extreme heatwaves, severe storms across Europe, Asia and North America, and major wildfires in Spain, Canada and Southern California.
Meanwhile, a simultaneous analysis published by California-based research organization Berkeley Earth also confirmed that 2025 was the third warmest year recorded since 1850, with 2024 remaining the warmest year and 2023 the second warmest.
"THE WORLD IS RAPIDLY APPROACHING THE PARIS AGREEMENT TEMPERATURE LIMIT"
Commenting on the findings, ECMWF Director-General Florian Pappenberger said the world is currently experiencing its warmest 10-year period on record and stressed the importance of scientific evidence in tackling climate change.
C3S Director Carlo Buontempo said that the fact that the last 11 years are the warmest on record is clear evidence of climate change, adding:
"The world is rapidly approaching the long-term temperature limit set by the Paris Agreement. Exceeding this limit is inevitable, and the only thing we can do now is to manage this unavoidable overshoot and its impacts on societies and natural systems in the best possible way."
