María José Sanz

A study published in Geophysical Research Letters shows that greenhouse gas emissions since the 2015 Paris Agreement are linked to the intensity of the heatwaves recorded in Europe since 2021. For the analysis, the team trained a generative artificial intelligence model and utilised climate models and meteorological observations. “We have found strong evidence that, had the heatwave that struck Europe in the summer of 2025 occurred without the emissions recorded since 2015, it would very likely have been cooler,” the authors state in a press release.

Human-induced climate change has made the ‘extreme’ weather conditions that fuelled the recent wildfires at least twice as likely in France and 20 times as likely in Spain, according to a new analysis by World Weather Attribution (WWA). The team analysed historical weather observations and used the Daily Severity Index (DSR), which incorporates heat, drought and wind conditions and reflects the difficulty of extinguishing a fire. The researchers examined the seven-day period with the highest DSR in south-western France and central Spain, where the fires occurred, and compared it with simulations of a pre-industrial climate. According to the study, under current climate conditions, events of this intensity are projected to occur once every 20 years in south-western France and once every six years in central Spain.

In some areas of Spain and France, the intensity of weather conditions that favour wildfires — heat, drought and wind — increased by up to 50 per cent between 2016 and 2025, compared with the period between 1981 and 2010. This is one of the conclusions of a study carried out by a team including Spanish researchers, which analysed national records of forest fires in southern Europe – Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece – alongside meteorological and climatic data from 1981 to 2025. The data, published in Scientific Reports, show that the number of days with conditions conducive to fires also increased in some areas of these countries. However, the annual number of fires over the last decade was 40 per cent lower than in the 1981–2010 period in all countries – a decline which, according to the authors, is consistent with a reduction in fires caused by humans, driven by stricter regulations.

Rising sea levels have quadrupled the frequency of extreme events related to this phenomenon along coastlines since 1900. This is one of the conclusions of a study, which included Spanish participation, suggesting that climate change has already altered the risk of coastal flooding and highlighting the need to integrate these changes into adaptation and risk management strategies. More than 680 million people worldwide live in low-lying coastal regions, where small changes in sea level can significantly affect flood risk. The study is published in Nature Climate Change and aligns with another paper, published the same day in Science Advances, which states that since the 1970s, the number of days on which sea levels have exceeded annual averages has tripled.

Rapid warming in Europe is reducing snow and ice cover, while very high air temperatures, drought, heatwaves, and record ocean temperatures are affecting regions from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. These are the main findings of the State of the Climate in Europe (ESOTC) 2025 report, prepared by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The data show that 95% of the continent recorded above-average annual temperatures last year, and river flows were below average for 11 months.

The GHGSat satellite constellation has identified 3,114 oil, gas and coal facilities worldwide that emitted 8.3 million tonnes of methane in 2023, according to data published in the journal Science. These estimates are more accurate than inventories taken on the ground or in the atmosphere.

Climate change has made the hot, dry and windy weather conditions that spread fires across the Iberian Peninsula 40 times more frequent and 30% more intense than in the pre-industrial climate, according to a rapid study by World Weather Attribution. The ten-day heatwave was also 200 times more likely and 3°C hotter due to climate change. The study, which analysed weather observations rather than climate models, warns that fires in Europe are overwhelming firefighting resources and highlights the importance of controlling vegetation in affected areas.

Forests cover approximately 40% of Europe's land area. Between 1990 and 2022, they absorbed around 10% of the continent's emissions from human activity, but this process is slowing down. An international team, including CREAF and CSIC, analyzes this decline and its causes in an article and proposes possible solutions. The work is published in the journal Nature.  

The carbon available for emission without exceeding the 1.5°C limit set in the Paris Agreement—known as the carbon budget—could be exhausted in just over three years at the current rate of CO₂ emissions. This is one of the conclusions of a new edition of Indicators of Global Climate Change, published in the journal Earth System Science Data. The study also shows that between 2019 and 2024, sea levels rose by an average of around 26 millimetres: more than double the rate of 1.8 mm per year recorded since the beginning of the 20th century.

In the early hours of the morning, after more than two weeks of negotiations and on the verge of collapse, participants at COP29 in Baku (Azerbaijan) reached an agreement to set the new climate finance target. In the end, at least 300 billion dollars a year will be contributed by rich countries to the least developed countries until 2035, within a broader global commitment of up to 1.3 trillion dollars directed at these same countries. The renewal of this target was part of the Paris Agreement and will enable governments to support developing countries in their climate action on adaptation, mitigation and damage from the climate crisis. The previous target - set at the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 - was $100 billion per year.