World could breach life-threatening target earlier than expected after recording third-hottest year, scientists say

The Earth experienced the third-hottest year on record and the warmest decade on record in 2025 and could breach a dire target earlier than expected, according to one of the world's leading climate agencies.

The Copernicus annual global climate report showed last year was only 0.13 degrees cooler than 2024 - the warmest year on record - and 0.01 degrees cooler than 2023.

The past three years averaged more than 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial level for the first time due to a build-up of greenhouse gases and exceptionally high sea surface temperature, partly due to an El Niño event.

READ MORE: Community recovery minister on holiday in Africa during Queensland floods

The 1.5-degree threshold is a target set in the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, with anything higher believed to have grave consequences.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which confirmed that humans had permanently changed the climate, has warned that there would likely be serious impacts to human health, a loss of ecosystems and more frequent extreme weather events.

But the latest data showed global warming could breach the 1.5-degree mark before the end of the decade, more than 10 years sooner than expected when the agreement was signed in 2015.

"We are approaching it very rapidly," Copernicus Climate Change Service Director Carlo Buontempo said.

Australia's latest annual climate change statement showed annual emissions are now 29 per cent below levels in 2005.

The federal government has revised the 2030 target to reduce emissions to 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, which it said would contribute to the global effort to keep global warming at the 1.5-degree target.

The Climate Council called for more urgent action from the government, saying the data showed what Australians were already experiencing, with devastating bushfires in Victoria, heatwaves in NSW and floods and an ex-tropical cyclone in Queensland all in the first few weeks of the year.

READ MORE: RBA governor takes stand against Donald Trump

"All signs point to the need to act right now, not tomorrow. Every action to cut climate pollution helps secure a safer future for ourselves and our families," the organisation's leading scientist, Lesley Hughes, said.

"Australia is reducing pollution in our energy sector, but we need to go harder and faster right across our economy."

Climate Council's leading economist, Nicki Hutley, said Australians were also footing the bill for the impacts of these extreme weather events.

Last year, floods and cyclone damage cost the country more than $2 billion in insured losses and flood zone homes were valued at $42 billion less due to their higher risk.

"Even Australians who avoided flood, storm or fire damage will still pay ever higher insurance premiums," Hutley said.

"We are also paying through lost farm production and higher food prices, lost productivity in sectors such as construction, and higher health costs."

Hutley said allowing climate change to worsen would be more expensive than investing in renewable energy and cleaner transport.

"We just need to get on with it and fast," she said.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.