Human induced env warming close to limit set under Paris Agreement

Human induced environmental warming reached 1.37°C above pre-industrial levels in 2025 that shows how close the planet earth is to breaching the limit set under Paris Agreement. 

The data was shown in the latest Indicators of Global Climate Change (IGCC) report published in Earth System Science Data journal. The report was prepared by more than 70 scientists from 56 institutions across 17 countries, according to a major international climate assessment released on Thursday.

Scientists also highlighted accelerating sea-level rise. Global mean sea level reached a record 23 centimetres above 1901 levels in 2025, driven by warming oceans and the melting of land-based ice.
Marine heatwaves are becoming increasingly common as well. The world’s oceans experienced 65 marine heatwave days in 2025, while the number of such events has more than tripled since 1991.

“Earth energy imbalance,” the gap between the amount of solar energy entering the planet and the amount escaping back into space, the indicator has reached a record high, showing that heat is accumulating in the climate system faster than ever,” researchers said in the report.

“A key indicator is the Earth’s energy imbalance, which measures how fast heat is accumulating in the climate system,” said Prof Piers Forster, lead author of the report and director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds.

He said the imbalance has been increasing since the 1970s and has nearly doubled in recent decades, reflecting the accelerating pace of climate change.

The report also found that global greenhouse gas emissions hit a record 56.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2024, driven largely by continued reliance on fossil fuels.

Scientists said the rate of human-induced warming remains at an all-time high of 0.27°C per decade. Rising concentrations of greenhouse gases, combined with declining sulphur dioxide pollution that previously masked part of the warming effect, are contributing to the trend.
According to the study, nearly all of the warming observed over the past decade can be attributed to human activities.

“Our study demonstrates that nearly all of the warming over the last decade is driven by human activities,” said Dr Samantha Burgess of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

She warned that the impacts of climate change are already being felt worldwide, affecting livelihoods, ecosystems and economies, and are expected to intensify as temperatures continue to rise.

The report noted that the remaining global carbon budget for limiting warming to 1.5°C has shrunk dramatically. As of the beginning of 2026, only 130 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide remained in the budget. At current emission levels, that allowance could be exhausted within about three years.
The report further showed that atmospheric concentrations of major greenhouse gases continued to rise in 2025. Carbon dioxide concentrations reached 425.6 parts per million (ppm), methane 1,936.3 parts per billion (ppb), and nitrous oxide 339.4 ppb.

Although the growth rate of emissions has slowed compared with the early 2000s, researchers stressed that current efforts remain far from sufficient.
“The Earth is accumulating heat faster than ever before,” said Dr Matt Palmer of the UK Met Office. “We are emitting more greenhouse gases than ever, trapping more heat in the atmosphere and pushing the climate system further out of balance.”