Copernicus, the EU Climate Change Monitoring Agency Report
Global Temperature in 2025 Was 1.47 Degrees Higher Than Pre-Industrial Levels
Three-Year Average Surpasses 1.5 Degrees... Trend Expected to Continue This Year
As global warming accelerates, 2025 has been recorded as the third hottest year in history. According to Yonhap News, on the 14th (local time), Copernicus, the European Union's climate change monitoring agency, stated in its annual report that "last year, the global average temperature was 1.47 degrees Celsius higher than the pre-industrial era (1850-1900)."
Citizens in Madrid, Spain, covering themselves with clothes to escape the extreme heat last year. Photo by AP Yonhap News
This is the third highest figure, following 2024 (1.60 degrees) and 2023 (1.48 degrees), with the three-year average increase exceeding 1.5 degrees for the first time on record. Berkeley Earth, a U.S. nonprofit climate research organization, told AFP that "the extreme temperature spikes observed from 2023 to 2025 indicate that global warming is accelerating."
According to the Copernicus report, last year the temperature in Antarctica soared to the highest level ever recorded, while the Arctic experienced its second hottest year. AFP reported that Central Asia, the Sahel region of Africa, and Northern Europe also experienced their hottest years on record last year. Carlo Buontempo, Director of Copernicus, stated, "The Earth's temperature continues to rise, and the trend is very clear," predicting that this pattern will persist this year as well.
Many regions suffered severely from climate change last year. Europe recorded the highest greenhouse gas emissions ever due to wildfires and other factors. The Caribbean was devastated by the super-powerful Hurricane Melissa, and in Pakistan, more than 1,000 people died due to massive flooding. If the increase in global temperature exceeds the 1.5-degree threshold, it is expected that heatwaves will last longer, floods will become more severe, and the resulting damage will worsen.
Copernicus warned that, at this pace, humanity's long-term goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to within 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels could be broken nearly a decade earlier than previously expected, possibly before 2030. The international community set this goal at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement (COP21).
However, the United States, the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases (after China), does not recognize climate change due to President Donald Trump's stance.
On the 7th, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum to withdraw from numerous international organizations related to climate change research and policy development. These include the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Withdrawal from the UNFCCC would automatically mean leaving the Paris Agreement as well.
In his keynote speech at the United Nations General Assembly last September, President Trump claimed that the climate change response and carbon reduction policies led by the United Nations were "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the world."
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