2025 on Track for Second or Third Warmest Year

The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on December 9 that 2025 is on track to become the second or third warmest year on record globally, tying with 2023 and trailing only the record set in 2024. The finding, based on data through November, underscores the relentless advance of climate change driven by human activities, even as natural weather patterns introduce some variability.

From January to November, the global average surface air temperature stood 1.48 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial baseline of 1850 to 1900, when large-scale fossil fuel burning began. This marks a continuation of the warming trend, with Copernicus noting that the year remains virtually certain to finish behind 2024, which was the first to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius annually. November alone registered as the third warmest November on record, at 1.54 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, influenced by unusually high temperatures in northern Canada and the Arctic Ocean.

Scientists attribute the rise primarily to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, which trap heat in the atmosphere and intensify weather extremes. Although 2025 has seen a shift to weakly cooling...