January 2025 was the warmest January ever measured on the planet, the European Copernicus observatory announced today (06/02). In fact, last month broke the high temperature record, which had been recorded just last year, despite the end of the El Niño phenomenon, which accelerated its rise in 2023-2024.
Last year proved to be "another amazing month", as "the record temperatures observed over the past two years continued, despite the development of La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific (Ocean) and their temporary impact of reducing global temperatures", in contrast to the El Niño phenomenon, said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Observatory's Climate Change Service (C3S).
As the average surface temperature reached 13,23° Celsius, according to the Copernicus Observatory, in January 2025 the temperature was higher “by 1,75° Celsius” compared to the pre-industrial era, before humans began changing the climate with the massive use of coal, oil and gas for energy production and other purposes.
January 2025 is therefore "the eighteenth of the last nineteen months in which the average air temperature at the Earth's surface exceeded the pre-industrial level by 1,5° Celsius and more," the European Climate Change Observatory noted.
In other words, it broke the 1,5° Celsius barrier, the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement, which was concluded ten years ago, in 2015, and aimed to limit the temperature rise to below 2° Celsius and to continue efforts to stay around 1,5° Celsius.
The agreement, however, referred to long-term trends. This increase would have to be observed for at least twenty years to be considered to have exceeded the threshold.
Taking this criterion into account, the temperature increase is about 1,3° Celsius. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), established by the UN, estimates that the 1,5° Celsius limit will likely be exceeded between 2030 and 2035. And this is regardless of the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions from humanity, which are close to peaking but have not yet begun to decline.
Global temperatures depend largely on those at the surface of the seas, a regulator of global climate, as they cover more than 70% of the planet. And these remain at levels never recorded before April 2023.
In terms of sea surface temperature, January 2025 ranks second, with January 2024 holding the record for highest temperature (0,19° Celsius).
However, the Copernicus Observatory highlights signs of "slowing down or stopping the development towards La Niña conditions", which portends a smaller decrease in global average temperatures in 2025.
Source: cnn.gr
