The year 2025 is on track to tie with 2023 as the second-warmest year ever recorded, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said Monday, underscoring the accelerating pace of global warming.
From January through November, average global temperatures were 1.48 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — the same as the full-year figure for 2023. Only 2024 was hotter, Copernicus said.
November 2025 ranked as the third-warmest November on record, with global surface air temperatures averaging 14.02 degrees Celsius.
Sea surface temperatures also remained unusually high, averaging 20.42 degrees Celsius across most latitudes, the fourth-highest November value ever measured.
Arctic sea ice extent was 12 percent below average, the second-lowest for any November, while Antarctic sea ice was 7 percent below average, the fourth-lowest for the month.
While 2025 may not individually surpass the 1.5-degree threshold set in the Paris climate accord, Copernicus said the average temperature for 2023 through 2025 is likely to exceed that mark — the first time a three-year period has done so.
“These milestones are not abstract — they reflect the accelerating pace of climate change,” said Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. “The only way to mitigate future rising temperatures is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”