By Abbas Nazil
Climate change worsened across the globe in 2025, with scientists confirming the year as the third hottest on record.
New scientific data shows 2025 trailed only 2024 and 2023 in global temperature rankings, extending a historic warming streak that has now lasted more than a decade.
Researchers say the finding is particularly alarming because the year included a La Niña cooling phase, which would normally lower global temperatures.
Despite this natural cooling influence, greenhouse gas emissions were strong enough to keep global heat near record levels.
Climate scientists say this confirms that human-caused warming is now overwhelming natural climate variability.
Experts from Berkeley Earth described the 2023 to 2025 temperature spike as extreme and possibly evidence of accelerating global warming.
They cited reduced sulphur pollution from shipping and declining reflective cloud cover as contributing factors.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change continues to warn that burning fossil fuels and intensive livestock farming remain the primary drivers of rising temperatures.
NASA scientists report that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased by roughly 50 percent in less than two centuries.
As of early January, carbon dioxide concentrations reached 427.49 parts per million, up steadily from under 320 ppm in 1960.
Scientists say these levels are unprecedented in human history.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed that global temperatures breached the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold in 2024 and remain dangerously close to that limit.
International agencies warn the world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement targets.
Even if all countries fulfill current climate pledges, global temperatures could still rise between 2.3 and 2.5 degrees Celsius this century.
In British Columbia, climate impacts were felt directly as severe rainstorms triggered widespread flooding in December.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimated nearly 90 million dollars in insured damage.
Atmospheric rivers fueled by tropical moisture caused evacuations, highway closures and extensive property damage.
The bureau warned that provincial flood protection strategies remain underfunded despite lessons from the devastating 2021 floods.
At the political level, Coastal First Nations reaffirmed their opposition to a proposed bitumen pipeline during a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Prince Rupert.
Leaders said no technology exists to clean oil spills at sea and warned that a single accident could destroy marine ecosystems and Indigenous livelihoods.
The pipeline proposal, promoted as a nation-building project by Alberta officials, has raised tensions due to limited Indigenous consultation.
Meanwhile, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2025 after two years of decline.
A report by the Rhodium Group attributed the increase to higher electricity demand from data centres, cryptocurrency mining and increased coal use.
Coal generation jumped 13 percent, while global carbon emissions reached a record high.
Scientists warn that without faster investment in renewable energy and climate resilience, extreme weather, biodiversity loss and economic damage will intensify in the years ahead.
