Planetary warming has significantly accelerated over the past 10 years, with temperatures rising at a higher rate since 2015 than in any previous decade on record, according to a new study.
The Earth warmed by approximately 0.35 degrees Celsius in the decade leading up to 2025. This is notably higher compared to an average increase of just under 0.2°C per decade between 1970 and 2015, the study published on Friday in the scientific journal *Geophysical Research Letters* revealed. The authors of the paper described this as the first statistically significant evidence of an acceleration in global warming.
The past three years have been the hottest on record when compared to the average temperatures before the Industrial Revolution. In 2024, global warming surpassed the 1.5°C threshold—the lower limit set by the Paris Agreement. While this target refers to temperature increases averaged over 20 years, breaching it even for a single year highlights that efforts to slow down climate change remain insufficient, the scientists emphasized.
These findings contribute to an ongoing debate among researchers. There is broad consensus that greenhouse gas emissions have driven planetary warming since pre-industrial times. However, until recently, this warming had progressed at a steady rate for decades. Record-breaking temperatures in recent years have led scientists to question whether the pace of temperature increases is now accelerating.
Demonstrating this acceleration proved challenging due to natural fluctuations in temperature. To address this, the researchers filtered out the “noise” — such as the effects of El Niño weather phases, volcanic eruptions, and changes in solar irradiance — to better reveal the “underlying long-term warming signal,” explained Grant Foster, a co-author of the study and statistics expert based in the U.S.
After isolating these variables, the authors concluded that there is strong evidence the accelerated warming since 2015 is not simply the result of unusually hot years like 2023 and 2024. Instead, global temperatures have departed from the previous, slower warming trajectory.
This new report adds to a growing body of research indicating that climate change is impacting the planet at a faster and more severe pace than previously understood. Supporting this, a separate paper published this week found that many studies underestimate how much sea levels have already risen along coastlines.
“If the warming rate of the past 10 years continues, it would lead to a long-term exceedance of the 1.5°C limit of the Paris Agreement before 2030,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, lead author of the warming study and researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “How quickly the Earth continues to warm ultimately depends on how rapidly we reduce global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels to zero.”
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2026-03-08/earth-is-warming-faster-than-previously-estimated-new-study-shows
