PARIS: Global warming has accelerated in a “statistically significant” way since 2015, according to a study published by the Potsdam Institute for Clim­ate Impact Research (PIK).

“Over the past 10 years, the estimated warming rate has been around 0.35C per decade, depending on the dataset, compared with just under 0.2C per decade on average from 1970 to 2015,” the study found.

“This recent rate is higher than in any previous decade since the beginning of instrumental records in 1880,” it added.

The study relied on observational data on climate change from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administr­ation (NOAA), and Berke­ley Earth, a California-bas­­ed non-profit research orga­­­n­­­is­­­­ation.

Study co-author Grant Foster said that the researchers had “filtered out” natural influences likely to obscure the underlying temperature trend, such as the El Nino phenomenon, volcanic eruptions, and variations in solar activity. In this way, “the ‘noise’ is reduced, making the underlying long-term warming signal more clearly visible,” Foster added.

“The adjusted data show an acceleration of global warming since 2015 with a statistical certainty of over 98 percent,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, PIK researcher and lead author of the study.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2026