Europe records hottest March as global heat stays above 1.5C

New data shows global temperatures in March averaged 1.6C above pre-industrial levels

Europe has recorded its hottest March since records began amid a streak of extraordinary global heat as the EU weighs up how far and fast to cut emissions by 2040.

New data released on Monday by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C35) shows last month was not only Europe’s warmest March on record, but also the second-warmest March globally, behind only March 2024.

On average, global temperatures in March were 1.6C higher than pre-industrial levels, continuing a troubling pattern of breaching 1.5C.

Twenty of the last 21 months have crossed the 1.5C threshold, which scientists warn increases the risks of extreme weather and irreversible climate damage.

Last year was the hottest year on record worldwide, and 2025 is on track to continue that trend.

The main driver of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, C3S said, reflecting the global scientific consensus. Without significant cuts to emissions, temperatures are expected to keep rising.

Samantha Burgess, strategic lead at the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, which runs C3S, said March also brought weather extremes across Europe, with “many areas experiencing their driest March on record and others their wettest March on record for at least the past 47 years”.

This kind of contrast – floods in some places, drought in others – is becoming more common in a warming world. The climate crisis fuels both droughts and extreme rainfall. Hotter air dries out soil faster but also holds more moisture, making storms more intense when they hit.

Activists are calling for governments to stop approving new fossil fuel projects and make polluting companies pay for the damage.

Rebecca Newsom, global political adviser for Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign, said Europe risks “ever harsher heatwaves and wildfires later in the year”, and warned that “contrasting rainfall extremes across the European region alone pose an immediate challenge to our food systems and to the economy as a whole”.

“Europe’s citizens must not be left alone to pay for the chaos that dirty energy companies are fuelling,” she said.

“In recent months we have seen oil and gas corporations increasing their plans to emit even more greenhouse gases, while ditching their already meek climate commitments,” she added. “Europe’s governments should stop looking for more oil and gas and prevent these corporations from doing so by banning all new fossil fuel projects.”

She also called for new taxes on oil majors like Shell, TotalEnergies, Equinor, and ENI “to help communities at home and around the world rebuild from climate disasters and invest in climate solutions”.

In the Arctic, the extent of sea ice fell to its lowest March level in 47 years of satellite records following a string of record lows in the preceding months. This continues a worrying trend, as polar regions warm significantly faster than the global average.

The alarming figures come as the EU faces political division over how fast to cut emissions in the coming decades. The European Commission is currently drafting a new 2040 climate target, with experts recommending a 90-95 per cent cut in net emissions from 1990 levels.

But some EU politicians, including senior German centre-right politician Peter Liese, have argued that the 90 per cent target is “overambitious” and risks damaging European industry.

“We really think when the 90 per cent is implemented without any flexibility, then it will lead to de-industrialisation,” Mr Liese said in an interview.

The new findings come just a few days after the World Meteorological Organisation confirmed that last year pushed past 1.5C for a full year for the first time, with impacts from heatwaves, floods and glacier melts threatening long-term ecological and economic stability.

Cover photo:  Climate activists hauled away after gatecrashing Kemi Badenoch conference speech