Human Activities Pushed Global Warming to 1.37C in 2025: Study

At the current rate, global warming is projected to surpass 1.5C in about four years’ time, a new study compiled by an international team of more than 70 scientists concluded.

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By Martina Igini

Human activities pushed global warming to 1.37C in 2025 as the entire climate system is continuing to heat at an accelerating rate, a new study has found.

The study, published Thursday, tracked 12 key sets of indicators of the state of the climate system. Among them was the presence of greenhouse gases, the leading cause of climate change, in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, are currently at an all-time high, the study found. However, there is evidence to suggest that emission growth of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, is slowing.

Another key indicator, the Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI), has more than doubled since the 1970s and it is now at record levels. The indicator, which represents the difference between the amount of energy entering and leaving the planet, provides a crucial measure of the of the overall heating of the planet and the pace and scale of human-caused climate change.

The vast majority of the Earth’s trapped atmospheric heat – around 90% – is transferred into the world’s oceans, triggering a cascading crisis across global marine and coastal systems. This immense thermal absorption causes seawater to physically expand while simultaneously accelerating the melting of glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost.

Consequently, global sea levels are rising at an unprecedented and accelerating pace, intensifying the danger of destructive storm surges and coastal flooding. In 2025, global mean sea level reached a record high, sitting about 23 centimeters (9 inches) higher on average than in 1901, according to the study. “This might sound small, but even this level of change is increasing coastal flooding in low-lying areas around the world, harming livelihoods and ecosystems, said Aimée Slangen, Research Leader at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and one of the study’s authors.

This surplus oceanic energy has also caused marine heatwaves to skyrocket in frequency, severely disrupting marine ecosystems, devastating commercial fisheries, and eroding natural coastal defenses. According to the study, 2025 alone experienced 65 days of marine heatwaves, more than triple the amount recorded in 1991.

The ramifications of this oceanic energy buildup extend back onto land by altering fundamental weather patterns. Because warmer oceans cause significantly higher rates of evaporation, the atmosphere becomes heavily saturated with moisture. This fuels increasingly severe and frequent weather extremes worldwide, including hurricanes and floods.

Scientists also confirmed that 2025 was the third warmest year on record, and that natural variability in the climate system – that is fluctuations in weather and climate conditions driven by internal Earth processes and natural external forces – had a limited effect on global mean temperatures last year. Observed warming during the 2016-2025 decade relative to the pre-industrial period was 1.26C, of which 1.24C was human-induced, the study also said.

“Our study demonstrates that nearly all of the warming over the last decade is driven by human activities. The impacts on livelihoods and ecosystems are already being felt worldwide, and will accelerate as temperatures continue to increase,” said Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate in the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which produced the study.

The study was compiled by an international team of more than 70 scientists, including IPCC contributors from 56 institutions across 17 countries. The United Nation’s IPCC, or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is considered the world’s most authoritative scientific body on climate change.

Featured image: Kyle Lam/hongkongfp.com