Why Ocean Warming Matters For Landlocked Countries Such As Switzerland

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) The seas have never been this warm since records began. Rising ocean temperatures also affect life in land-locked countries. This content was published on September 17, 2026 - 09:00 8 minutes

I cover climate change and energy through reportages, articles, interviews and in-depth reports. I am interested in the impacts of global warming on everyday life and solutions for an emission-free planet. Passionate about travel and discovery, I studied biology and other natural sciences. I have been a journalist for SWI swissinfo for more than 20 years.

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A refreshing dip in the sea? For swimmers who spent their August holidays in Mallorca, that was probably not the case. A buoy off the Balearic island logged a record temperature of 33°C, only a few degrees below a hot bath at home.

“For the Mediterranean, this is truly an extraordinary temperature record,” Thomas Frölicher, professor of climate and environmental physics at the University of Bern, told Swissinfo.

The anomaly is not limited to the Mediterranean, where in some areas water temperatures reached up to 6°C above the seasonal average. Globally, the average sea surface temperature reached 21.1°C this summer, surpassing the record set in 2024, the hottest year since measurements began, according to CopernicusExternal link, the European Earth observation programme.

However, ocean warming, which has now reached 1.1-1.2°C above pre-industrial levels, goes far beyond uncomfortable swimming conditions. Its consequences extend to marine ecosystems and to the climate of land areas, including countries far from the coast, such as Switzerland.

“What worries me most is that today's exceptionally high ocean temperatures will become the norm within ten or 20 years,” Frölicher says. The most fragile ecosystems risk exceeding their capacity to adapt, triggering cascading effects on biodiversity, fisheries, food security and coastal communities.

The chart below shows how average ocean surface temperatures have now reached record levels.

>> The following graph shows how the average ocean surface temperature has now reached record levels:

Why are seas and oceans getting warmer?

The main cause of warmer seas is greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and other gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. The oceans absorb more than90%External link of this excess heat generated by human activities.

As on land, marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent, more intense and longer lasting. The share of European ocean waters affected by these events has increased from an average of 40% in the 1980s to 98% during the period 2023-2025External link. About a decade ago, a marine heatwave in the northeastern Pacific lasted nearly a year, Frölicher notes.

Warming is not limited to the ocean surface. As Frölicher explains, heat is accumulating throughout the ocean, particularly in the upper 2,000 metres. Measurements around Antarctica and in the North Atlantic indicate, however, that deep waters are also gradually warming.

Climate change, and in particular the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, is the primary driver of rising temperatures in European seas, according to a new studyExternal link by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international group of experts that analyses the role of climate change in extreme weather events.

“Every additional tonne of carbon we emit [into the atmosphere] pushes European coastal waters and ecosystems toward conditions that have never been experienced before,” says Frölicher, one of the study's co-authors.

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