The past 11 years have been the warmest on record globally. Europe is warming significantly faster than the global average.
Global warming is increasingly evident. 2025 was the third-hottest year on record, both globally and in Europe. The past three years — 2024, 2023 and 2025, in that order — were the hottest ever recorded globally.
Average global temperatures over this period were more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (1850–1900). This is the first time a three-year period has exceeded the 1.5°C threshold according to Copernicus data.
So, by how much have temperatures increased in Europe? Which year was the hottest globally and in Europe? Why are the mid-2020s the hottest years on record?
How hot was it in 2025?
The global average temperature in 2025 was 14.97°C according to Copernicus. This is 0.59°C above the 1991–2020 average and 1.47°C above the 1850–1900 average.
2024 was the hottest year with a 15.1°C average temperature, followed by 14.98°C in 2023.
That shows that 2025 is only 0.13°C below 2024, the warmest year on record.
World's hottest years had two main drivers
The Copernicus report emphasised that there are two main reasons why the years 2023 to 2025 were exceptionally warm. The first is the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, from continued emissions and reduced uptake of carbon dioxide by natural sinks like forests. Second is sea-surface temperatures reaching exceptionally high levels across the ocean, associated with an El Niño event and other ocean variability factors, amplified by climate change.
Changes in the amounts of aerosols, along with low clouds and variations in atmospheric circulation are further factors in this result.
Europe records its third-warmest year too
2025 was also the third-warmest year on record in Europe. The average temperature reached 10.41°C. This was 1.17°C above the 1991–2020 reference period.
In Europe, 2024 was the warmest year on record, with an average temperature of 10.69°C. The second-warmest year was 2020, at 10.43°C. This means the difference between 2020 and 2025 was very small.
“This report confirms that Europe and the world are in the warmest decade on record,” Florian Pappenberger, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Director-General said.
The last 11 years were the hottest on record
The Copernicus report shows that the past 11 years have been the 11 warmest on record globally.
The report warns that, at the current rate of warming, the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit for long-term global warming could be reached by the end of this decade. This would be more than a decade earlier than expected when the agreement was signed.
"This fact provides further evidence of the unmistakable trend towards a hotter climate. The world is rapidly approaching the long-term temperature limit set by the Paris Agreement,” said Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Record heat and extreme weather events hit parts of Europe
While 2025 was the third-warmest year overall, annual average temperatures reached record highs in several regions. Besides the Antarctic, these included parts of the northwestern and southwestern Pacific, the northeastern Atlantic, far eastern and north-western Europe, and central Asia.
The exceptional conditions of 2025 came in a year marked by major extreme weather events across many regions. These included record heatwaves, severe storms in Europe, Asia and North America, and wildfires in Spain, Canada and Southern California.
In July 2025, the global average temperature reached 16.68°C, which is 0.45°C above the 1991–2020 average.
Europe is the fastest-warming continent
Europe is cooler than the global average. In 2025, the global average temperature was 14.97°C, while Europe’s average was 10.41°C.
However,Europe is the fastest-heating continent on Earth, according to data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The dataset and its baseline differ from those used by Copernicus, but the findings point to the same trend.
In 2023, the global mean annual temperature change on land reached 1.8°C above the 1951–1980 baseline. In Europe, the increase was higher, at 2.4°C.
In 2023, the top 10 countries experiencing the highest temperature increases were all in Europe.
Copernicus data also show that Europe is heating up much faster than the rest of the world. In 2025, the global average temperature was 0.59°C above the 1991–2020 average, while in Europe it was 1.17°C higher.
“Preparedness and prevention remain possible but only when action is guided by robust, scientific evidence,” Pappenberger said.
Higher temperatures are already hurting Europe’s economy, with researchers warning of increasing losses to GDP and productivity in the years ahead. The losses vary across Europe.
