climate change

The latest data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service show that this summer in Europe has been characterised by unprecedented heat stress and very low river flows. In fact, in Western Europe, this has been the warmest summer on record and the third warmest across the continent as a whole. The European summer has been characterised by extreme heatwaves and drought conditions, with a record 52 per cent of the continent exposed to very intense heat stress by the end of the season. Furthermore, the exceptional heat persisted well beyond the peak summer months, with daily temperature records also being set in May and September.
 

The tenth edition of the Copernicus State of the Ocean Report warns that the oceans are warming at an alarming rate, with consequences for marine life, coastlines and communities around the world. Produced by Mercator Ocean International with contributions from 125 specialists from various countries, the report uses satellite, in situ and modelling data to show that global ocean warming has been accelerating since 1960 and reached its highest level in 2025. With regard to Spain, the report highlights the impact of Storm Louis in late February 2024, which brought waves exceeding eight metres in some places, widespread power cuts, serious disruption at two ports and one fatality. As for the Mediterranean, although sea levels are rising at a similar rate in both the western and eastern Mediterranean, the rate of acceleration in the eastern part is much more pronounced, according to the report.

The Atmosphere Watch analysis, published by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, shows how, in 2026, air pollution has crossed borders and caused nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population to be exposed to high levels of tropospheric ozone. This pollutant is produced when other harmful compounds react with sunlight and high temperatures. The report highlights the massive wildfires in France, Spain and Belgium this summer, which generated significant smoke transport, affecting air quality thousands of kilometres away. Furthermore, across Europe as a whole, successive heatwaves between June and August led to an increase in ozone emissions from local sources, resulting in the health protection limit values being exceeded.  

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.

A study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters estimates that babies born in Spain in 2025 will experience 7.3 more years of extreme weather conditions conducive to wildfires. The exposure for their grandparents, born in 1950, will be half that figure: 3.7 additional years. According to the authors, the vast majority of this increase is due to climate change rather than rising life expectancy. Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, in line with the Paris Agreement, would reduce Spanish young people’s lifetime exposure to these conditions by more than a year, compared with current policies.

According to a report published by the World Meteorological Organisation, 2025 has been one of the driest years in more than three decades for rivers worldwide. Global water reserves have been declining for more than 10 years, and this is the fourth consecutive year in which glacier losses have been recorded across all regions. Although rainfall in the Iberian Peninsula was above normal in the summer, the west and north-west of Spain experienced a reduction in rainfall of up to 75 per cent below average.
  

A combination of geological and climatic factors — the latter influenced by anthropogenic climate change — lay behind the catastrophic rock and ice avalanche last August on Nepal’s northern border, according to a review carried out by World Weather Attribution and glaciology experts. The team carried out an attribution analysis to examine the role of climate change in the rise in temperatures in July and August preceding the collapse, as well as in the region’s rainfall. According to the study, human-induced warming has raised the freezing line by around 100 metres per decade, leading to the thinning of glaciers and the thawing of the permafrost that held the mountain together. These factors, together with the destabilisation caused by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 2015, are believed to be the main causes of the landslide, which left more than a thousand people dead and thousands missing. 

A team from Harvard University (United States) and the University of Ghana has analysed the meteorological factors that can most significantly affect cocoa crops, the raw material used to make chocolate. In addition to low rainfall during the dry season – a long-standing concern – heavy rainfall during the wet season has emerged as a key factor. This pattern was observed in all three countries studied, which are major cocoa producers: Ghana, Ecuador and Indonesia. The authors, who have published their findings in PNAS, emphasise that rainfall harmful to cocoa is linked to larger-scale climate patterns, such as El Niño or variations in sea surface temperature in the Atlantic; consequently, it is possible to predict some poor harvest years before the damage occurs, with sufficient advance warning to alert farmers.

Cities’ adaptation to climate change is not progressing fast enough to protect their inhabitants from increasing heatwaves, infectious diseases and exposure to pollen, which are having an ever-greater impact on the urban population. This is the main conclusion of a study published in The Lancet Public Health, based on 28 indicators from more than 850 European cities, including many in Spain such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. The greatest improvements were observed in cities that increased their green space. The study also suggests that risks are rising more rapidly in southern and eastern Europe.

Summer holidays in Spanish schools are amongst the longest in Europe, and every year the debate resurfaces as to whether their length is appropriate or excessive. Do they affect the knowledge and skills acquired? Could they have an impact on well-being? Do they affect all children equally? How could the summer months be improved for children and teenagers?