The planet is accumulating heat at an accelerating pace, with global warming reaching 1.37°C in 2025, according to a report released today by the European Earth observation program Copernicus.
The report, “Global Climate Change Indicators”, produced by more than 70 scientists, from 56 institutions in 17 countries, and published today in the journal “Earth System Science Data” warns of evidence showing that the entire climate system is warming and that human activities will cause the 1.5°C limit relative to the pre-industrial era to be exceeded within four years.
In 2015, almost all countries worldwide signed the Paris climate Agreement, agreeing to do everything possible to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5°C.
Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for the Future of Climate at the University of Leeds (United Kingdom), the lead author of the report cited in a statement released today, said that Earth’s energy imbalance (which measures the rate at which heat accumulates in the climate system) should be near zero but has been increasing since the 1970s and is at a “record level.”
Other data contained in the report indicate that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are at a record high, reaching 56.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions in 2024 (the latest data), primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels.
The report also notes that 2025 was the third warmest year on record.
“Our study shows that almost all of the warming in the last decade is driven by human activities. Impacts on livelihoods and ecosystems are already being felt worldwide and will intensify as temperatures continue to rise,” warned Samantha Burgess, of the Copernicus Climate Service, which is implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
The rate of warming induced by human action remains at the highest level on record, about 0.27°C per decade.
Other experts cited in the Copernicus briefing also point to the rise in sea level of 1.8 millimeters per year, a value that is increasing.
Another ocean-related figure concerns the number of days with marine heatwaves, 65 days of marine heatwaves just in 2025. The global number has more than tripled between 1991 and 2025.
