Global temperatures in 2025 were the third-highest on record.
The year was 0.01°C cooler than 2023, while 2024 remained the warmest year ever documented, according to the EU’s Copernicus Global Climate Highlights report published on Thursday by the European Commission.
Temperatures in 2025 were also “significantly higher than historical averages."
Europe recorded its third-warmest year on record last year, according to Copernicus.
Air temperatures over land were the second-highest ever recorded in 2025, based on the report, which Copernicus said was coordinated with the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation and national climate monitoring organisations.
Antarctica saw its warmest annual temperature on record, while the Arctic had its second warmest.
Polar records and Paris temperature limit
Warming trends suggest the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C could be reached by the end of this decade — more than 10 years earlier than projected when the agreement was first signed, Copernicus said.
Copernicus linked the heat of the 2023–2025 period to rising greenhouse gases and unusually high sea-surface temperatures, citing continued emissions and pressure on natural carbon sinks such as forests, alongside long-term ocean warming.
The EU remains committed to becoming climate-neutral by 2050, and plans to present a new European framework for climate resilience and risk management this year.
Copernicus is the Earth observation part of the EU’s space programme, using satellite and other data to monitor the planet and its environment, it said.
