Climate Data Confirms Caribbean Threat

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THE BAHAMAS – 2025 ranked among the three warmest on record globally, according to multiple international climate datasets, with scientists confirming the last three years are the hottest since record-keeping began more than a century ago.

For small island nations like The Bahamas, this is more than a statistic.

It means hotter days, warmer oceans, and an annual hurricane season that is becoming more dangerous and unpredictable.

Scientists say 2025 marked the first three-year period where average global temperatures rose above 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, a threshold long viewed as a major warning sign for severe and potentially irreversible impacts.

Director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service Carlo Buontempo says the margin may be small, but the message is clear.

Carlo Buontempo — Director, Copernicus Climate Change Service
“What the reality of the finding tells us is that the last three years together are the first three years above 1.5, meaning that we are getting closer and closer to the 1.5 degree threshold defined by Paris (agreement), which, as we know, is an average over 20 years or so.”

Scientists say those fractions of a degree matter, especially for regions like the Caribbean, where warmer oceans fuel stronger storms, heavier rainfall, and more coastal flooding.

Last year, record ocean heat helped drive more intense weather events, including Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean, a storm scientists say was made worse by climate change and a warning of what lies ahead.

Global data also show oceans stored more heat than ever before in 2025, a key driver of stronger hurricanes, rising sea levels, and flooding that threatens low-lying islands across The Bahamas and the region.

And despite global pledges under the Paris Agreement, scientists warn the world is on track to permanently exceed the 1.5-degree limit within this decade, shifting the focus from prevention to adaptation.