The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has released a report indicating that May of this year marked the second hottest May on record, surpassed only by May 2024.

This abnormal high temperature has resulted in unprecedented heatwaves in Greenland, leading to widespread melting of the ice sheet, which experts link closely to climate change.

C3S projects that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, with global surface average temperatures in May 2025 expected to be 1.4 degrees higher than the pre-industrial average from 1850 to 1900, making the spring of March to May 2025 the second hottest on record in the Northern Hemisphere.

Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, noted that although cooling may provide a temporary respite, temperatures are likely to quickly exceed the 1.5-degree threshold again as climate change continues.

Additionally, a report from the World Weather Attribution organization highlighted that human-induced climate change raised temperatures in Iceland and Greenland by approximately 3 degrees during the heatwave in May, exacerbating the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Experts broadly agree that emissions from burning fossil fuels are the primary cause of global warming. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have committed to limiting global warming to within 1.5 degrees to avoid severe consequences of climate change. However, this threshold has not yet been officially breached, and many scientists warn that despite this target seeming increasingly unrealistic, governments must accelerate decarbonization efforts to mitigate the impacts of severe weather.