2025 Ranked Third Hottest Year as Global Heat Accelerates

The world recorded its third hottest year on record in 2025, extending an unprecedented streak of extreme heat with little sign of relief in the coming years, according to climate scientists in Europe and the United States.

Data show that the past 11 years have been the warmest ever observed, with 2024 ranking as the hottest year and 2023 close behind. Climate monitors said the recent surge in temperatures marks a troubling acceleration in global warming.

For the first time, average global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels over a three-year period. Scientists warned that the sustained breach of this threshold signals growing risks of severe climate impacts.

Researchers said the sharp rise in temperatures between 2023 and 2025 was unusually intense and may indicate that the pace of planetary warming is increasing faster than previously expected.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries committed to limiting global warming to well below 2C and to pursue efforts to keep it within 1.5C to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change. Experts caution that this lower limit could now be reached by the end of the decade—much earlier than earlier projections suggested.

In 2025, global temperatures averaged about 1.47C above pre-industrial levels, only slightly cooler than in 2023 and well below the 1.6C recorded in 2024. Around 770 million people experienced their hottest year on record, while no region reported record-cold annual conditions.

The Antarctic logged its warmest year ever, while the Arctic experienced its second hottest year, highlighting the disproportionate warming at Earth’s poles. Several regions, including Central Asia, the Sahel and parts of northern Europe, also endured record-breaking heat.

Climate experts warned that 2026 is unlikely to bring relief. If the El Niño weather pattern develops, temperatures could again approach or exceed recent records. Scientists said that even if a new record is not set immediately, the overall trend remains unmistakably upward.

Meanwhile, efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions—the main driver of climate change—have slowed in several developed countries. Emissions rose in the United States last year after two years of decline, while the pace of reductions also eased in parts of Europe.

Scientists said greenhouse gases remain the primary cause of warming, but noted that other factors may have amplified the recent temperature spike. Changes in air pollution rules for shipping, which reduced sulfur emissions that previously reflected sunlight, may have contributed to additional warming.

Experts warned that without rapid and sustained cuts to emissions, record-breaking heat is likely to become the norm rather than the exception in the years ahead.