World forest loss last year ‘unlike anything we've seen', data shows
The world lost a record amount of forest in 2024, driven by a catastrophic rise in fires.
New data from the University of Maryland's GLAD Lab, made available on World Resources Institute's (WRI) Global Forest Watch platform, shows that loss of tropical primary forests alone reached 6.7 million hectares last year - twice as much as in 2023 and an area nearly the size of Panama. That is around 18 football pitches lost every 18 minutes.
For the first time on record, fires, not agriculture, were the leading cause of this loss, accounting for nearly half of all destruction. They burned five times more tropical primary forest in 2024 than in 2023. Latin America was particularly hard hit.
In total, these fires emitted 4.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions - more than four times the emissions of all air travel in 2023.
'This level of forest loss is unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data,' says Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of WRI's Global Forest Watch.
'It's a global red alert - a collective call to action for every country, every business and every person who cares about a livable planet. Our economies, our communities, our health - none of it can survive without forests.'
Though forest fires are natural in some ecosystems, they are mostly human-caused in tropical regions. Fires are often started for agricultural reasons or to prepare new areas for farming.
Last year was the hottest year on record, with extreme conditions including severe widespread drought fuelled by climate change and the El Nino climate phenomenon. Some countries, especially those in Latin America, experienced their worst drought on record in 2024. The report says these conditions made fires more intense and harder to control in many parts of the world.
While some forests can recover from these blazes, the combined pressure of land conversion and a changing climate hinders that recovery. It also creates a feedback loop that raises the likelihood of future fires.
Brazil, set to host the COP30 climate conference later this year, lost the largest areas of tropical forest in 2024, according to the data. In total, it accounted for 42 per cent of all tropical primary forest loss last year.
Fires were fuelled by the worst drought on record for the country, causing 66 per cent of that loss. Other causes, such as farming for soy and cattle, rose by 13 per cent - still much lower than the peaks seen in the early 2000s.
'Brazil has made progress under President Lula - but the threat to forests remains,' says Mariana Oliveira, director of the forests and land use programme at WRI Brasil.
'Without sustained investment in community fire prevention, stronger state-level enforcement and a focus on sustainable land use, hard-won gains risk being undone. As Brazil prepares to host COP30, it has a powerful opportunity to put forest protection front and centre on the global stage.'
Forest loss also skyrocketed by 200 per cent in Bolivia last year to a total of 1.5 million hectares. For the first time ever, it ranked in second place behind Brazil, overtaking the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - despite having less than half the forest area.
Stasiek Czaplicki Cabezas, Bolivian researcher and data journalist for Revista Nomadas, says fires in 2024 'left deep scars', not just on the land but for those who depend on it. 'The damage could take centuries to undo.'
Despite shifting down in the rankings, DRC saw the highest levels of primary forest loss on record, surging by 150 per cent compared to 2023. Fires, made worse by unusually hot and dry conditions, caused 45 per cent of the damage. Just like the Amazon, the Congo basin acts as a crucial carbon sink, but increasing fires and forest loss now threaten its vital function.
Columbia too saw an almost 50 per cent increase in primary forest loss but fires weren't the primary cause. Instability from the breakdown of peace talks led to the growth of activities like illegal mining and coca production (the main ingredient in cocaine).
The rise in forest loss extended well beyond the tropics in 2024, with a 5 per cent increase in the total loss of tree cover around the world compared to 2023. That is an additional 30 million hectares lost last year, an area roughly the size of Italy.
An intense fire season in Russia and Canada was partially responsible for driving this increase. While forest fires are a part of the natural dynamics in these regions, they have been more intense and longer-lasting in recent years, giving tree cover less time to recover.
Research has shown that these boreal forests are increasingly susceptible to drought and fires due to climate change, creating a feedback loop of worsening fires and carbon emissions.
Last year was also the first time since Global Forest Watch began keeping records when fires raged across both the tropics and boreal forests.
The report isn't all bad news, with some countries racking up wins in the face of a challenging year. In Indonesia, for example, primary forest loss fell by 11 per cent. Efforts under former President Joko Widodo to restore land and curb fires helped keep fire rates low, even amid widespread droughts.
Arief Wijaya, managing director of WRI Indonesia, says that while deforestation remains a concern, they are proud that it was one of the few countries to reduce primary forest loss in 2024. 'We hope the current administration can keep the momentum going.'
Malaysia too saw a 13 per cent decline and fell out of the top 10 countries for tropical primary forest loss for the first time.
Leaders of over 140 countries signed the Glasgow Leaders Declaration in 2021, promising to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. To do this, the world needs to cut deforestation by 20 per cent every year starting immediately.
But we are alarmingly off track to meet this commitment: Of the 20 countries with the largest area of primary forest, 17 have higher primary forest loss today than when the agreement was signed.
Stronger fire prevention, provision for deforestation-free supply chains, enforcement of trade regulations and increased funding for forest protection are urgently needed, the report's authors say - especially through Indigenous-led initiatives.
Mapping shows that one such initiative, Bolivia's newly established Charagua Lyambae protected area, kept fires at bay in 2024.
Their investments in early warning systems and enforcement of land use policies helped prevent the spread while the forest burned around it for the second year in a row. A testament to what Indigenous-led fire prevention can do.
'Countries have repeatedly pledged to halt deforestation and forest degradation,' says Kelly Levin, chief scientist for data and systems change at the Bezos Earth Fund.
'Yet the data reveal a stark gap between promises made and progress delivered - alongside the growing impacts of a warming world. That should jolt us out of complacency.'
Five Dutch companies form 'an extremely powerful oligopoly' that dominates European fishing, according to a new investigation into their use of marine resources and public funds.
Nicknamed the 'Big Five' - Parlevliet & Van der Plas (P&P), Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family - generated €2.4 billion in revenue in 2023, according to the report from France-based NGO BLOOM.
For the first time, the 'sprawling and opaque empire' of these fishing supermajors has been mapped. It claims that they have all been involved in major scandals - from illegal fishing in Peru to corruption in Namibia.
"Thanks to a network of opaque subsidiaries, a fleet of technologically over-equipped vessels, and an aggressive takeover strategy, these multinationals reign over global fishing,' says Laetitia Bisiaux, head of the industrial fishing campaign at BLOOM.
'Behind a façade of competition, these companies cooperate closely: they join forces to crush the other players in the sector.'
Through their network of 400 subsidiaries, BLOOM's report says the Big Five control nearly 230 vessels - including the world's largest fishing vessel, the 145-metre-long Annelies Ilena.
It estimates their combined capacity at 260,000 tonnes, a sixth of the entire EU fishing fleet's gross tonnage. If you lined them all up, they would span 10 kilometres - a two-hour walking distance.
The investigation, conducted with the Dutch consortium of investigative journalists Spit, reveals that most of the companies are vertically integrated. This means they control the entire production chain - from catch to plate, trawler to fish-and-chip shop - on a global scale.
This enables them, it alleges, to buy fish from their own subsidiaries at artificially low prices to reduce the wages paid to crews (who are often paid a share of the catch) and to transfer profits to tax havens.
And, BLOOM says, their outsized presence is giving them undue lobbying sway. Through international subsidiaries, the Big Five are members of at least fifteen lobbying organisations in the EU.
The report adds that this 'poses serious problems to the smooth running of democracies through their influence over public decision-making.'
First, a quick explainer. The EU sets fishing catch limits, which are then shared among countries through national fishing quotas.
Fishing companies purchase these rights in the form of individual transferable fishing quotas (ITQs); they are their most significant assets, and can be sold among each other, used as collateral for loans, leased out to smaller companies, and used to speculate on the market.
The Dutch, BLOOM says, were quick to understand and exploit these dynamics in the 1980s, buying up fishing rights and fleets in other countries when prices were low. Being first on the scene with large freezer-trawlers also enabled them to capitalise on the fact that fishing rights are often distributed on the basis of historical catches, creating a feedback loop of fish and wealth.
The new report details how the Big Five work together in order to pool or exchange fishing quotas so they can operate more efficiently. They also jointly own subsidiaries and have shared ownership in some ships.
After the Netherlands, these companies have invested the most capital in France. 24 industrial vessels holding a large proportion of French quotas operate under the French flag via their subsidiaries.
The UK ranks third in terms of vessels owned by the Big Five (18), enabling them to maintain control of fishing areas and quotas despite Brexit. In terms of tonnage, Germany ranks second despite having only seven vessels, given their large size.
A second BLOOM investigation, also released today, delves into the public subsidies granted to Dutch shipowners in the aftermath of Brexit. It finds that the Big Five received €53.2 million of the €135 million package intended to compensate struggling fishers for a loss of access to British waters.
Furthermore, the main beneficiaries of these subsidiaries were trawlers equipped with electrodes for destructive electric fishing, and some trawlers which haven't actually been blocked by Brexit.
The Annelies Ilena, co-owned by P&P and Alda Seafood while flying a Polish flag, catches 400 tonnes of fish a day, as much as 1,000 small-scale fishing boats bring in.
It might be the biggest factory ship, but for BLOOM experts, it is emblematic of the wholesale industrialisation of the fishing sector.
All but one of the Big Five's 230-strong fleet engages in the most destructive types of fishing: pelagic trawling, bottom trawling and demersal seining (pulling a net across the sea floor). These techniques are deployed in the English Channel, North Sea, West Africa, Indian Ocean, Pacific, and the Arctic.
According to BLOOM, 'their industrial logic is based on gigantic vessels and massive extraction capacity, which is incompatible with the preservation of healthy marine ecosystems.'
The report also claims the profit from this 'extractivist approach to wild resources' is now being transferred into real estate, including high-rise residential buildings.
Fisheries economists fear that this could be a warning signal that, as a result of overfishing, the return on investments in the fishing industry is declining.
Parlevliet & Van der Plas, Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family have been contacted for comment.
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France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Year after exodus, silence fills Panama island threatened by sea
The evacuation of around 1,200 members of the Indigenous Guna community to a new life on the mainland was one of the first planned migrations in Latin America due to climate change. The exodus from Gardi Sugdub in the Caribbean left those who remained with a sense of sadness, said Delfino Davies, who has a small museum on the island with spears, jars and animal bones. "There are no friends left or children playing," he told AFP. Gardi Sugdub now has the silence of a "dead island," he said. Dusty desks and empty classrooms are all that remain of a school that once bustled with children. Many of the island's wooden houses are padlocked. "There's no one here. Sometimes I get sad when I'm here alone," Mayka Tejada, 47, said in the small store where she sells bananas, pumpkins, clothes, toys and notebooks. Like Davies and about 100 others, she decided to stay. But her mother and two children, aged 16 and 22, moved to one of the 300 houses built by the Panamanian government in a new neighborhood called Isber Yala on the mainland, a 15-minute boat ride away. Gardi Sugdub, the size of around five football fields, is one of 49 inhabited islands in the Guna Yala archipelago -- also known as San Blas -- which scientists warn is in danger of disappearing by the end of the century. 'I'll die here' Sitting in a hammock in her earthen-floor house filled with the aroma of medicinal herbs, 62-year-old Luciana Perez said she had no intention of leaving. "I was born in Gardi and I'll die here. Nothing is sinking. Scientists don't know, only God," she said. Perez said that she was not afraid because since she was a child she had seen big waves and rising waters flooding houses at times. Steven Paton, a scientist at the Panama-based Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, said climate change meant that sea levels were expected to rise by up to 80 centimeters. "Most of the Guna Yala islands are about 50 centimeters above sea level," he told AFP. "They'll be underwater." Ana Toni, CEO of the United Nations' COP30 climate conference, told AFP that the mass evacuation "shows the reality we already have to face on the planet." Sidewalks, water, electricity The arrival of the rainy season has left puddles dotting the dirt roads of Gardi Sugdub. In contrast, in the new settlement of Isber Yala -- "land of loquats" in the Guna language -- the streets are paved and have sidewalks. The nearly 50-square-meter (500-square-feet) concrete houses have flushing toilets and there is a plot of land to grow vegetables. On Gardi Sugdub "we lived crowded together, and I had to go fetch water from the river in a small boat," said Magdalena Martinez, a 75-year-old retired teacher. In Isber Yala, water is available for an hour in the morning, she said. "I can fill the buckets. And I have electricity 24 hours a day," said Martinez, who lives with her granddaughter in the new neighborhood. Tejada's children also have no regrets about leaving the island, she said. "I miss them, but they're happy there. They have a place to play football and walk around," Tejada said. While the island's school relocated to Isber Yala, its dilapidated clinic remained in Gardi Sugdub. "Before, people came on foot. Now, they have to travel by land and sea to get here. There are fewer visitors," said 46-year-old doctor John Smith. Some of the islanders divide their time between the two communities, while others visit occasionally to check on their homes. This week, there will be more activity than normal: seven jars of chicha -- a fermented corn drink -- are ready for Isber Yala's first anniversary. Martinez is looking forward to the celebration, even though it will be bittersweet. Although she may not see it herself, "the islands will disappear because the sea will reclaim its territory," she said.
Euronews
21-05-2025
- Euronews
World forest loss last year ‘unlike anything we've seen', data shows
The world lost a record amount of forest in 2024, driven by a catastrophic rise in fires. New data from the University of Maryland's GLAD Lab, made available on World Resources Institute's (WRI) Global Forest Watch platform, shows that loss of tropical primary forests alone reached 6.7 million hectares last year - twice as much as in 2023 and an area nearly the size of Panama. That is around 18 football pitches lost every 18 minutes. For the first time on record, fires, not agriculture, were the leading cause of this loss, accounting for nearly half of all destruction. They burned five times more tropical primary forest in 2024 than in 2023. Latin America was particularly hard hit. In total, these fires emitted 4.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions - more than four times the emissions of all air travel in 2023. 'This level of forest loss is unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data,' says Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of WRI's Global Forest Watch. 'It's a global red alert - a collective call to action for every country, every business and every person who cares about a livable planet. Our economies, our communities, our health - none of it can survive without forests.' Though forest fires are natural in some ecosystems, they are mostly human-caused in tropical regions. Fires are often started for agricultural reasons or to prepare new areas for farming. Last year was the hottest year on record, with extreme conditions including severe widespread drought fuelled by climate change and the El Nino climate phenomenon. Some countries, especially those in Latin America, experienced their worst drought on record in 2024. The report says these conditions made fires more intense and harder to control in many parts of the world. While some forests can recover from these blazes, the combined pressure of land conversion and a changing climate hinders that recovery. It also creates a feedback loop that raises the likelihood of future fires. Brazil, set to host the COP30 climate conference later this year, lost the largest areas of tropical forest in 2024, according to the data. In total, it accounted for 42 per cent of all tropical primary forest loss last year. Fires were fuelled by the worst drought on record for the country, causing 66 per cent of that loss. Other causes, such as farming for soy and cattle, rose by 13 per cent - still much lower than the peaks seen in the early 2000s. 'Brazil has made progress under President Lula - but the threat to forests remains,' says Mariana Oliveira, director of the forests and land use programme at WRI Brasil. 'Without sustained investment in community fire prevention, stronger state-level enforcement and a focus on sustainable land use, hard-won gains risk being undone. As Brazil prepares to host COP30, it has a powerful opportunity to put forest protection front and centre on the global stage.' Forest loss also skyrocketed by 200 per cent in Bolivia last year to a total of 1.5 million hectares. For the first time ever, it ranked in second place behind Brazil, overtaking the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - despite having less than half the forest area. Stasiek Czaplicki Cabezas, Bolivian researcher and data journalist for Revista Nomadas, says fires in 2024 'left deep scars', not just on the land but for those who depend on it. 'The damage could take centuries to undo.' Despite shifting down in the rankings, DRC saw the highest levels of primary forest loss on record, surging by 150 per cent compared to 2023. Fires, made worse by unusually hot and dry conditions, caused 45 per cent of the damage. Just like the Amazon, the Congo basin acts as a crucial carbon sink, but increasing fires and forest loss now threaten its vital function. Columbia too saw an almost 50 per cent increase in primary forest loss but fires weren't the primary cause. Instability from the breakdown of peace talks led to the growth of activities like illegal mining and coca production (the main ingredient in cocaine). The rise in forest loss extended well beyond the tropics in 2024, with a 5 per cent increase in the total loss of tree cover around the world compared to 2023. That is an additional 30 million hectares lost last year, an area roughly the size of Italy. An intense fire season in Russia and Canada was partially responsible for driving this increase. While forest fires are a part of the natural dynamics in these regions, they have been more intense and longer-lasting in recent years, giving tree cover less time to recover. Research has shown that these boreal forests are increasingly susceptible to drought and fires due to climate change, creating a feedback loop of worsening fires and carbon emissions. Last year was also the first time since Global Forest Watch began keeping records when fires raged across both the tropics and boreal forests. The report isn't all bad news, with some countries racking up wins in the face of a challenging year. In Indonesia, for example, primary forest loss fell by 11 per cent. Efforts under former President Joko Widodo to restore land and curb fires helped keep fire rates low, even amid widespread droughts. Arief Wijaya, managing director of WRI Indonesia, says that while deforestation remains a concern, they are proud that it was one of the few countries to reduce primary forest loss in 2024. 'We hope the current administration can keep the momentum going.' Malaysia too saw a 13 per cent decline and fell out of the top 10 countries for tropical primary forest loss for the first time. Leaders of over 140 countries signed the Glasgow Leaders Declaration in 2021, promising to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. To do this, the world needs to cut deforestation by 20 per cent every year starting immediately. But we are alarmingly off track to meet this commitment: Of the 20 countries with the largest area of primary forest, 17 have higher primary forest loss today than when the agreement was signed. Stronger fire prevention, provision for deforestation-free supply chains, enforcement of trade regulations and increased funding for forest protection are urgently needed, the report's authors say - especially through Indigenous-led initiatives. Mapping shows that one such initiative, Bolivia's newly established Charagua Lyambae protected area, kept fires at bay in 2024. Their investments in early warning systems and enforcement of land use policies helped prevent the spread while the forest burned around it for the second year in a row. A testament to what Indigenous-led fire prevention can do. 'Countries have repeatedly pledged to halt deforestation and forest degradation,' says Kelly Levin, chief scientist for data and systems change at the Bezos Earth Fund. 'Yet the data reveal a stark gap between promises made and progress delivered - alongside the growing impacts of a warming world. That should jolt us out of complacency.' Five Dutch companies form 'an extremely powerful oligopoly' that dominates European fishing, according to a new investigation into their use of marine resources and public funds. Nicknamed the 'Big Five' - Parlevliet & Van der Plas (P&P), Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family - generated €2.4 billion in revenue in 2023, according to the report from France-based NGO BLOOM. For the first time, the 'sprawling and opaque empire' of these fishing supermajors has been mapped. It claims that they have all been involved in major scandals - from illegal fishing in Peru to corruption in Namibia. "Thanks to a network of opaque subsidiaries, a fleet of technologically over-equipped vessels, and an aggressive takeover strategy, these multinationals reign over global fishing,' says Laetitia Bisiaux, head of the industrial fishing campaign at BLOOM. 'Behind a façade of competition, these companies cooperate closely: they join forces to crush the other players in the sector.' Through their network of 400 subsidiaries, BLOOM's report says the Big Five control nearly 230 vessels - including the world's largest fishing vessel, the 145-metre-long Annelies Ilena. It estimates their combined capacity at 260,000 tonnes, a sixth of the entire EU fishing fleet's gross tonnage. If you lined them all up, they would span 10 kilometres - a two-hour walking distance. The investigation, conducted with the Dutch consortium of investigative journalists Spit, reveals that most of the companies are vertically integrated. This means they control the entire production chain - from catch to plate, trawler to fish-and-chip shop - on a global scale. This enables them, it alleges, to buy fish from their own subsidiaries at artificially low prices to reduce the wages paid to crews (who are often paid a share of the catch) and to transfer profits to tax havens. And, BLOOM says, their outsized presence is giving them undue lobbying sway. Through international subsidiaries, the Big Five are members of at least fifteen lobbying organisations in the EU. The report adds that this 'poses serious problems to the smooth running of democracies through their influence over public decision-making.' First, a quick explainer. The EU sets fishing catch limits, which are then shared among countries through national fishing quotas. Fishing companies purchase these rights in the form of individual transferable fishing quotas (ITQs); they are their most significant assets, and can be sold among each other, used as collateral for loans, leased out to smaller companies, and used to speculate on the market. The Dutch, BLOOM says, were quick to understand and exploit these dynamics in the 1980s, buying up fishing rights and fleets in other countries when prices were low. Being first on the scene with large freezer-trawlers also enabled them to capitalise on the fact that fishing rights are often distributed on the basis of historical catches, creating a feedback loop of fish and wealth. The new report details how the Big Five work together in order to pool or exchange fishing quotas so they can operate more efficiently. They also jointly own subsidiaries and have shared ownership in some ships. After the Netherlands, these companies have invested the most capital in France. 24 industrial vessels holding a large proportion of French quotas operate under the French flag via their subsidiaries. The UK ranks third in terms of vessels owned by the Big Five (18), enabling them to maintain control of fishing areas and quotas despite Brexit. In terms of tonnage, Germany ranks second despite having only seven vessels, given their large size. A second BLOOM investigation, also released today, delves into the public subsidies granted to Dutch shipowners in the aftermath of Brexit. It finds that the Big Five received €53.2 million of the €135 million package intended to compensate struggling fishers for a loss of access to British waters. Furthermore, the main beneficiaries of these subsidiaries were trawlers equipped with electrodes for destructive electric fishing, and some trawlers which haven't actually been blocked by Brexit. The Annelies Ilena, co-owned by P&P and Alda Seafood while flying a Polish flag, catches 400 tonnes of fish a day, as much as 1,000 small-scale fishing boats bring in. It might be the biggest factory ship, but for BLOOM experts, it is emblematic of the wholesale industrialisation of the fishing sector. All but one of the Big Five's 230-strong fleet engages in the most destructive types of fishing: pelagic trawling, bottom trawling and demersal seining (pulling a net across the sea floor). These techniques are deployed in the English Channel, North Sea, West Africa, Indian Ocean, Pacific, and the Arctic. According to BLOOM, 'their industrial logic is based on gigantic vessels and massive extraction capacity, which is incompatible with the preservation of healthy marine ecosystems.' The report also claims the profit from this 'extractivist approach to wild resources' is now being transferred into real estate, including high-rise residential buildings. Fisheries economists fear that this could be a warning signal that, as a result of overfishing, the return on investments in the fishing industry is declining. Parlevliet & Van der Plas, Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family have been contacted for comment.
France 24
08-05-2025
- France 24
Global temperatures stuck at near-record highs in April: EU monitor
The extraordinary heat spell was expected to subside as warmer El Nino conditions faded last year, but temperatures have stubbornly remained at record or near-record levels well into this year. "And then comes 2025, when we should be settling back, and instead we are remaining at this accelerated step-change in warming," said Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "And we seem to be stuck there. What this is caused (by) -- what is explaining it -- is not entirely resolved, but it's a very worrying sign," he told AFP. In its latest bulletin, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said that April was the second-hottest in its dataset, which draws on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations. All but one of the last 22 months exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the warming limit enshrined in the Paris agreement, beyond which major and lasting climate and environmental changes become more likely. Missed target Many scientists believe this target is no longer attainable and will be crossed in a matter of years. A large study by dozens of pre-eminent climate scientists, which has not yet been peer reviewed, recently concluded that global warming reached 1.36C in 2024. Copernicus puts the current figure at 1.39C and projects 1.5C could be reached in mid 2029 or sooner based on the warming trend over the last 30 years. "Now it's in four years' time. The reality is we will exceed 1.5 degrees," said Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs Copernicus. "The critical thing is to then not latch onto two degrees, but to focus on 1.51," the climate scientist told AFP. Julien Cattiaux, a climate scientist at the French research institute CNRS, said 1.5C "would be beaten before 2030" but that was not a reason to give up. "It's true that the figures we're giving are alarming: the current rate of warming is high. They say every 10th of a degree counts, but right now, they're passing quickly," he told AFP. "Despite everything, we mustn't let that hinder action." 'Exceptional' Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming that has made extreme weather disasters more frequent and intense. But they are less certain about what else might have contributed to this persistent heat event. Experts think changes in global cloud patterns, airborne pollution and Earth's ability to store carbon in natural sinks like forests and oceans, could be factors also contributing to the planet overheating. The surge pushed 2023 and then 2024 to become the hottest years on record, with 2025 tipped to be third. "The last two years... have been exceptional," said Burgess. "They're still within the boundary -- or the envelope -- of what climate models predicted we could be in right now. But we're at the upper end of that envelope." She said that "the current rate of warming has accelerated but whether that's true over the long term, I'm not comfortable saying that", adding that more data was needed. Copernicus records go back to 1940 but other sources of climate data -- such as ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons -- allow scientists to expand their conclusions using evidence from much further into the past. Scientists say the current period is likely to be the warmest the Earth has been for the last 125,000 years.
