Record rate of global warming and rising seas, study warns

Emissions of climate-warming pollutants are at an all-time high, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels. Emily Beament reports

- Emily Beament

HUMAN activities pushed global warming to 1.37°C in 2025, and the rate heat is building up in the Earth's system suggests high levels of future warming, scientists have warned.

The annual “indicators of global climate change” update by leading scientists across the world finds clear evidence that the world is continuing to heat, with global warming set to surpass a key threshold of 1.5°C in about four years.

Under 2015's global Paris Agreement, countries agreed to limit global warming to “well below” 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to curb temperature rises to 1.5°C to prevent the worst droughts, heatwaves, floods, sea level rises and wildlife collapses driven by climate change.

The study, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, warns that the “carbon budget” - the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that the world can emit and still keep temperature rises to 1.5°C - is likely to be exhausted in just three years, and the budget for 1.7°C will be used up in 12 years.

Emissions of climate-warming pollutants are at an all-time high, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels.