The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) of the European Union reports that May 2025 was the second-hottest on record globally. Last month’s global surface temperatures were 1.4°C (2.5°F) warmer than the pre-industrial average of 1850–1900, before the widespread usage of fossil fuels.
For the first time in 22 months, a month did not surpass pre-industrial temperatures by more than 1.5°C (2.7°F). This concluded “an unprecedentedly long sequence of months over 1.5°C”, according to C3S Director Carlo Buontempo. He went on to say that although this would provide a short-term reprieve, continued warming will probably cause the 1.5°C threshold to be breached again shortly.
According to C3S, May temperatures were exceptionally high in northern Canada, northeastern Russia, western Antarctica, and a sizable portion of the Middle East and western Asia. Extreme temperatures in Sindh province’s Jacobabad, Pakistan, approached 50°C (122°F). In southern Pakistan, a heatwave in June of last year had already claimed over 560 lives. According to Friederike Otto of Imperial College London, a 20°C heatwave is highly exceptional for that area, who also stated that “without climate change, this would have been impossible.”
Climate Impacts and Heatwaves
Many regions of the world were impacted by the extreme heat in May. According to Meteo France, smoke from Canadian wildfires spread to France and engulfed the city of Lyon.
In another case, a May heatwave that affected Iceland caused Greenland’s ice sheet to melt 17 times faster than usual, according to a different analysis from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) organization. These circumstances demonstrate how climate change is still having an effect, even in months when temperatures are below 1.5°C.
Uneven Climate Action
Global climate action momentum is still uneven. Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has encouraged the production of more fossil fuels despite the country’s increasing natural disasters. According to the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), data centers and artificial intelligence emissions are also increasing.
On the other hand, China’s emissions decreased by 1% over the previous 12 months and by 1.6% year over year in Q1 2025. If this keeps up, China could have peaked in emissions, according to Carbon Brief.
Since 1990, the E.U. has achieved a 37% decrease in emissions while attaining economic growth of around 70%. This demonstrates how climate action may promote economic growth, Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra underlined. Restoring mangrove forests as a climate adaptation tactic was another topic of discussion at the recent meeting of Caribbean leaders. These developments come even as May 2025 was the second-hottest on record globally, highlighting the urgency of decisive and collective action.
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