The planet is on track to reach 2025 his second warmest year on record, equal to 2023, after the historic high of 2024, the European climate monitor reported on Tuesday.
The data of the European Copernicus Observatory confirm that global temperatures will exceed 1.5º C above pre-industrial levels, the limit considered safe by the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Temperatures rose an average of 1.48º C between January and November, or “currently tied with 2023 as the second warmest year on record,” according to the observatory’s monthly update.
“The three-year average for 2023-2025 is on track to exceed 1.5ºC for the first time,” Samantha Burgess, climate strategist at Copernicus, said in a statement.
“These milestones are not abstract, they reflect the accelerating pace of climate change and the only way to mitigate future temperature increases is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.
He UN Secretary General Antonio Guterreswarned in October that the world would not be able to keep warming below 1.5ºC in the coming years.
Last month was the third warmest November, averaging 1.54C above pre-industrial levels, according to Copernicus.
“The month was marked by numerous extreme weather events, including tropical cyclones in Southeast Asia, causing extensive and catastrophic flooding and loss of life,” the observatory said.
The Philippines was hit by back-to-back typhoons that killed about 260 people in November, while Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia suffered deadly floods in December.
Copernicus makes its measurements using billions of satellite and meteorological readings, both on land and at sea, and its data dates back to 1940.
