2025 on track to tie as second-hottest year on record, EU monitor says

⭐ Join our community and access the best we offer!

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on Japan Times or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reports that 2025 is on track to tie 2023 as the second-hottest year ever recorded, surpassed only by 2024
• From January to November, the planet was 1.48°C warmer than pre-industrial levels, putting the 2023–2025 three-year average on pace to exceed 1.5°C for the first time

🔭 The context: November 2025 was the third-warmest November in history, at 1.54°C above pre-industrial temperatures, contributing to a year marked by extreme disasters
• Southeast Asia was hit by back-to-back typhoons and record floods, killing over 260 people in the Philippines
• Heat anomalies stretched across the Arctic, northern Canada and Antarctica, with only isolated cold pockets in Russia
• Scientists say these incremental rises are already destabilising global climate systems, amplifying storms, floods, heatwaves and agricultural stress

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Crossing 1.5°C, even temporarily, signals worsening non-linear climate risks, including accelerating ice loss, sea-level rise, and biodiversity collapse
• The data reinforces that fossil-fuel emissions remain the dominant driver, and global mitigation is not on track
• Despite COP28’s commitment to “transition away from fossil fuels,” COP30 failed to secure a phase-out due to resistance from oil- and gas-producing nations
• Each year of delay locks in higher long-term warming and humanitarian costs

⏭️ What’s next: COP31 negotiations and national climate plan revisions in 2026 will determine whether governments finally align near-term policies with the 1.5°C pathway or cement a world moving toward 2.4–2.9°C warming, the range projected under current policies

💬 One quote: “These milestones are not abstract,” said Copernicus’s Samantha Burgess. “The only way to mitigate future rising temperatures is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions”

📈 One stat: Humanity’s burning of fossil fuels accounts for ~90% of global CO₂ emissions, the core driver behind record heat

See on illuminem's Data Hub™ the sustainability performance — carbon credit purchases, total emissions, and climate targets of thousands of companies

Click for more news covering the latest on climate change