Emissions of climate-warming pollutants are at an all-time high, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels.
Human activities pushed global warming to 1.37C in 2025, and the rate of heat building up in the Earth’s system is intensifying, scientists say.
The annual “indicators of global climate change” update by leading scientists finds clear evidence the world is continuing to heat, with global warming set to surpass a key threshold of 1.5C in about four years.
Under 2015’s Paris Agreement, countries agreed to limit global warming to “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to curb temperature rises to 1.5C.
The study, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, warns the “carbon budget” – the amount of greenhouse gas emissions the world can emit and still keep temperature rises to 1.5C – is likely to be exhausted in just three years. The budget for 1.7C will be used up in 12 years.
