New Data Shows Planet Continues to Heat Up While US Radically Backslides on Climate Action

Copernicus data shows that 2023 through 2025 was the first time in recorded history that temperatures across the planet averaged more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for a three-year period. Scientists have long warned that continuing to breach this threshold on a long-term basis-which the latest science shows is now inevitable-will significantly raise the risks of severe, even irreversible climate impacts, some of which are already starting to unfold. Also, global ocean temperatures continued to rise last year, hitting new record-high levels, in response to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases driven by the burning of fossil fuels.

Below is a statement by Dr. Carlos Martinez, a senior climate scientist with the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS):  

"The new data is the latest unequivocal evidence that our climate is in crisis. The actions of policymakers and the duplicitous fossil fuel industry are heating the planet, and people around the world are bearing the steep costs. The consequences are in full view: climate-driven weather disasters including catastrophic storms, floods, wildfires and extreme heat waves are stealing lives and livelihoods and harming the economy.

"The Trump administration is not simply refusing to face the realities of climate change we are experiencing, it is actively lying about the science and undermining our nation's federal scientific resources. Acting like there's no tomorrow by trying to force even more burning of coal, oil and gas will cost lives and make the Earth a harder place to live in the years to come. The administration is also abdicating any semblance of international leadership through its radical actions to increase heat-trapping emissions and drop out of global climate agreements designed to limit warming and help protect people and ecosystems.

"We have the technology and scientific knowledge to power the world through clean energy while also investing in climate resilience. Clinging to an obsolete and dangerous fixation on fossil fuels will bring profits to a few and deprive billions of others on the planet of a secure and livable future."

Additional UCS experts who can discuss rising global temperatures and the impacts of climate change:

• Dr. Marc Alessi, a science fellow in climate attribution science at UCS.
• Dr. Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at UCS.
• Dr. Delta Merner, associate director for the Climate Accountability Campaign at UCS.
• Erika Spanger, director of strategic climate analytics at UCS.

Additional Resources:

• The latest UCS blogs on harmful anti-science actions taken by the second Trump administration.
• Press statement on billion-dollar, extreme weather disasters amid Trump administration's ongoing cuts to climate research and emergency response.
• Press statement on the Trump administration's intention to dismantle the National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research.