This weekly round-up brings you key climate news from the past seven days, including temperature trends in March and the latest from the Trump administration’s war on climate.
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1. March 2025 Was Europe’s Hottest on Record, Second-Hottest Globally, Says EU Monitor
The global average temperature stood at 14.06C, 1.60C above the pre-industrial level for March, according to data by theEuropean Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). This makes last month the 20th month in the last 21 months for which the global-average surface air temperature surpassed the 1.5C mark.
Temperature over Europe –the fastest-warming continent– remained above average, with the average temperature for the region at 6.03C, 2.41C above the 1991-2020 average for March.
The continent was also affected by “contrasting rainfall extremes,” said Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
Meanwhile, Arctic sea ice last month had its lowest monthly extent since satellite record-keeping began 47 years ago, the EU agency said on Tuesday. The previous three months also saw a record low for the time of year, it added.
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2. Trump’s Signs Executive Orders to Revive ‘Beautiful Clean Coal’ in Blow to US Emissions Reduction Efforts
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed four executive orders aimed at reviving coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, and eliminate Biden-era laws meant to curb greenhouse gases both within states and nationwide.
Standing in front of a group of coal miners at the White House, Trump said that his administration “will rapidly expedite leases for coal mining on federal lands” and “streamline permitting.”
Theorderpaving the way for all this describes coal as “beautiful,” “clean,” “abundant and cost effective,” and capable of meeting the nation’s rising electricity demand. It directs federal agencies to identify and eliminate policies that discourage investment in coal production and coal-fired electricity generation.
A similar attempt to revive the industry by the first Trump administrationfailed, with nearly 100 coal plants retiring or announcing retirements during Trump’s first term.
Now, Trump is back at it, working to fulfil his campaign promise to “unleash American energy.” But reviving an industry in decline even in the US means eliminating existing policiesintroducedby former president Joe Biden last year in a bid to curb emissions.
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3. US Exits Critical Global Talks to Decarbonize Shipping Sector
The United States has abandoned global talks aimed at decarbonizing the shipping sector and threatened to reciprocate against any fees that US ships could incur.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nation’s shipping agency, is expected to reach an agreement on carbon charges for the maritime sector on Friday following two weeks of negotiations at the agency’s headquarters in London.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that the US will not be “engaging in negotiations” after news broke of a diplomatic demarche the US sent to ambassadors on Tuesday.
In the leaked note, the US said it “rejects any and all efforts to impose economic measures against its ships based on GHG emissions or fuel choice” and “urges your government to reconsider its support for the GHG emissions measures under consideration.” It also promised to “consider reciprocal measures” meant at offsetting any fees US ships may incur if the IMO adopts new emissions measures.
The spokesperson added that it was the administration’s policy to put US interests first in the “development and negotiation of any international agreements,” Reutersreported.
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4. Climate Change Made ‘Bonkers’ Central Asia Heatwave Up to 10C Hotter: Report
Temperatures climbed to nearly 30C across Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in late March – up to 15C higher than the seasonal average, according to World Weather Attribution.
Led by 10 researchers from universities and meteorological agencies in the Netherlands, Sweden,
Denmark, the US and the UK, the study concluded that climate change was responsible for at least 4C of that warming over the five-day period. But the team cautioned that this was “likely” an underestimation, as models do not account for the region’s unusually rapid rise in temperature in March, which is heating up “much faster” compared to any other month, the authors said.
The 10C change above pre-industrial levels is “quite frankly bonkers,” said study co-author Ben Clarke, adding that the group’s studies typically identify changes of 2-4C.
Once-rare warm spells like this can be expected about once every three years because of human-induced global warming, which has made the Earth 1.3C hotter compared to pre-industrial levels, the group said. The continued burning of fossil fuels is poised to make events like this even hotter and more frequent, it added.
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5. US Weather Service Set to Halt Foreign-Language Forecasts As Contract With AI Translation Firm Expires
A contract between the National Weather Service (NWS) and a translation company expired on Tuesday, leaving millions in the US without foreign language weather forecasts.
The NWS, the country’s primary source of weather, hydrologic, and climate data and provider of forecasts and warnings, has been relying on foreign-language translation service Lilt for forecast translations since 2023. The five-year contract,valued at $5.8 millionand set to be renewed every spring, helped provide weather forecast translations into Spanish, Chinese, and three other languages to some 30 cities and metropolitan areas across the country, according toBloomberg.
But a deadline to renew the contract passed on Tuesday, and people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg said that there are currently no plans to substitute the service while the agency waits for approval to renew the agreement with Lilt. Neither companies responded to the news agency’s request for comment.
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Tagged: week in review
