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New York — Ten years after the Paris Agreement took effect, newly released climate datasets show the world warming at an accelerating pace, with 2025 ranking among the three hottest years ever recorded, and sea ice, ocean heat and sea levels crossing new thresholds.
Efforts to limit climate-damaging fossil fuels have not been enough and the world is on course to miss its climate goals. Data from some of the world’s leading scientific agencies show global warming has sped up markedly since the mid-2010s.
Record-high emissions
The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Global Atmosphere Watch network shows concentrations of CO₂, methane and nitrous oxide climbing to record highs, driving the temperature spike observed from 2023 to 2025, scientists say.
Global fossil fuel CO₂ emissions are projected to climb to a record 38.1-billion tonnes in 2025, driven by rising coal, oil and gas use despite rapid growth in renewable energy, according to the latest Global Carbon Budget report.
Poduced by an international team of more than 130 scientists, the report estimates global fossil fuel CO₂ emissions will rise 1.1% next year, pushing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations to roughly 52% above preindustrial levels.
Researchers warn there is only room for about 17-billion more tonnes of CO₂ — equivalent to roughly four years of emissions at current rates — if the world wants to cap global warming at 1.5°C above the preindustrial average.
Regional trends are mixed: emissions are projected to increase in China, India, the US and the EU, while falling in Japan.
Warmest years
Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) said the Earth’s surface in 2025 was 1.19°C above the 1951–1980 average, effectively tying with 2023 as one of the warmest years ever measured.
The WMO’s consolidated dataset places 2025 at 1.44°C above preindustrial levels, ranking it among the top three warmest years over the 176 years of recorded temperatures.
Sea ice
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) 2025 Arctic Report Card confirmed that October 2024–September 2025 was the warmest period since 1900, and the region continues to warm more than twice as fast as the global average.
Sea ice extent reached the lowest winter maximum ever recorded in March 2025, at about 14.47-million square kilometres, according to the US National Ice Center.
The oceans absorbed record amounts of heat in 2025, setting a new global high for upper-ocean heat content, according to NOAA and Berkeley Earth.
Sea levels, measured by tide gauges and satellites, continue to rise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a 0.20m-0.29m rise by 2050 relative to 1995–2014.
