Harsher heat ahead as 2025 verified Europe's hottest year

Climate experts have warned European governments to prepare for more dangerous, record-breaking high temperatures, after it was confirmed that 2025 was the continent's hottest year on record, and that the trend will continue.

A new study published on Wednesday by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization found that annual sea surface temperatures across Europe reached their highest level last year, and that unusually high land temperatures caused major problems, including deadly wildfires.

John Hyland, from Greenpeace, told The Guardian that the report clearly shows the EU must set more challenging climate targets if it is to head off life-threatening problems attributed to global warming.

"All the emergency warning lights are flashing red," he said. "Either governments take swift and effective action to cut carbon pollution right now, or they can continue irresponsibly rolling back protections, placing countless people's health, homes, jobs and livelihoods at risk."

The latest edition of the annual analysis found Europe's Nordic region sizzled under unusually high temperatures during 2025, with the Nordic Arctic Circle recording a staggering 30 C during July.

The study said the hot temperatures were not limited to the oceans and the Nordic region. More than 95 percent of the European continent was hit by abnormally warm weather throughout the year.

It found temperatures across Europe have risen by 0.56 degrees each decade since the mid-1990s, a faster rate of warming than anywhere else on the planet.

The scientists also suggested a reason why Europe has been hit harder than other parts of the world: its unusually thick layer of fossil-fuel pollution.

The analysis found snow cover across Europe was 31 percent below average last year, and that snow mass was 45 percent lower.

Wildfires that raged because of the heat and lack of rain scorched 1 million hectares of land, which was a record. The fires not only affected agricultural production but also contributed to atmospheric pollution from fossil fuels.

The report said record levels of those atmospheric greenhouse gases now make it almost impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees more than pre-industrial levels.

The EU's scientific advisers warned earlier this year that Europe could see a 3-degree temperature rise, instead of the 1.5-degree target, saying governments should respond with new climate risk assessments and climate resilience embedded in all future EU policies.