Hello and welcome back to our weekly climate newsletter.

This year is set to be the world's second or third-warmest on record, according to new data from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

This year will also likely round out the first three-year period in which the average global temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale.

"These milestones are not abstract – they reflect the accelerating pace of climate change and the only way to mitigate future rising temperatures is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Samantha Burgess, the strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said in a statement.

The announcement comes after last month's United Nations climate conference failed to agree to substantial new measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet.

The emissions are largely produced by the fossil fuel industry, which accounts for around 68 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions, according to the United Nations.

Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said.

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A firefighter stands on top of a fire truck to battle the Palisades Fire while it burns homes on the Pacific Coast Highway amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)

Australia receives first climate migrants from sinking Tuvalu

By Stuti Mishra

Warming oceans made Asia's deadly floods far worse, scientists say

By Sibi Arasu and Anton L. Delgado

Chemicals from plastic objects may affect behaviour in children

By Stuti Mishra

Julia's must reads

Children who grow up in extreme heat are less likely to reach major developmental milestones for reading and numeracy, a new study from New York University has found.

The research shows that global warming can harm human development from the earliest stages, and that it does not only impact physical health.

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The Environmental Protection Agency, under the direction of the Trump administration, has removed some of its language noting that climate change is driven by human burning of fossil fuels.

Information noting that humans are the drivers of climate change has been deleted from one of the agency's webpages titled "Causes of Climate Change" and a couple of related pages have been removed.

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CLIMATE IN NUMBERS

$7 billion

That's the estimated cost of recovery and reconstruction in Sri Lanka following Cyclone Ditwah

Read more

The Independent has launched a project to investigate the impact of foreign aid cuts on the developing world. The project receives funding from the Gates Foundation. All of the journalism is editorially independent.

FEATURED

Charities' fury at Starmer for raiding international aid budget to tackle UK migration crisis

By David Maddox

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"At The Independent, we've always believed journalism should do more than describe the world – it should try to improve it.

This Christmas, we're asking for your help again as we launch our new campaign with the charity Missing People – the SafeCall appeal.

Every year, more than 70,000 children in the UK are reported missing. The misery that follows – for the child, for the family, for the community – is often hidden. Too many of these young people have nowhere to turn when they need help most. SafeCall will change that. Our goal is to raise £165,000 to help Missing People launch this new, free service – designed with the input of young people themselves – offering round-the-clock support, advice and a route to safety."

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