Canadian PM arrives in Beijing for official visit

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for an official visit to China through Saturday.

This visit marks the first trip to China by a Canadian Prime Minister in eight years.

When briefing on the visit of Carney, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said China looks forward to taking this visit as an opportunity to enhance dialogue and communication, increase political mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, properly manage differences, address each other's concerns and consolidate the momentum of improvement in China-Canada relations to bring greater benefit for the two peoples.

Last year has been confirmed as the third-warmest year on record, with scientists warning the planet is likely to heat up sooner than previously thought, according to a report released on Wednesday.

In 2025, the global average temperature stood at 14.97 degrees Celsius, 0.13 degrees Celsius cooler than 2024, the warmest year on record, and just 0.01 degrees Celsius cooler than 2023, said the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) in the report.

This also marks the first time that global temperatures for the past three years (2023-2025) have averaged more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level (1850-1900), a critical threshold set by the Paris Agreement, according to C3S.

The Paris Agreement seeks to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, with an aspiration to cap it at 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.

The report attributed the temperature hikes over the past three years mainly to the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and exceptionally high sea-surface temperatures, linked to an El Nino event and other ocean variability factors, amplified by climate change.

Utilizing several methods, the current level of long-term global warming is estimated to be around 1.4 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, according to the report.

Based on the current rate of warming, the report said that the Paris Agreement's limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius for long-term global warming could be reached by the end of this decade, about a decade earlier than initial projections under the agreement.