Copernicus says 2025 was the third-hottest year on record

Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, reported that 2025 was the third hottest year on record, Time said. The report noted that "The past 11 years have been the 11th warmest on record" and that 2024 currently remains the hottest year on record, the first to see average global temperatures briefly exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Mauro Facchini, head of Earth Observation at the Directorate General for Defence Industry and Space at the European Commission, said in a press conference: "It is a milestone that none of us wish to see." He added, "The news is not encouraging and the urgency of climate action has never been more important.

By monitoring how our climate is changing, and the risk that these changes will bring, we can plan for a more climate resilient future." The report said it is now understood that the world is likely expected to blow past the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C, and researchers say that threshold could be reached by the end of this decade—over a decade earlier than predicted when the agreement was adopted in 2015.

Key Topics

Science, Copernicus, European Commission, Mauro Facchini, Paris Agreement, La Niña