2023 was by a large margin the warmest year recorded on earth so far, confirms yet another body that keeps tabs on climate change.
The global average temperature was 1.45 degrees above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), according to the WMO, which notes that it is symbolically close to the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. But that refers to long-term warming where the limit is exceeded for at least two decades.
Many record notes
Every decade since the 1980s has been warmer than the previous one, and the last nine years have been the warmest on record.
The biggest culprit is climate change, which is primarily driven by human emissions from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas. But last year, the naturally occurring El Niño weather phenomenon, which developed in mid-2023, also gave the global average temperature an extra boost.
“Given that El Niño usually has the greatest impact on global temperatures after reaching its peak, 2024 could be even warmer,” writes the new WMO chief Celeste Saulo in a comment.
“We must drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the transition to renewable energy sources.”
Shrinking sea ice
It was also unusually warm in many places in the surface waters of the world’s oceans for large parts of the year, with several serious marine heat waves as a result. Additionally, Antarctic sea ice extent was at record lows for several periods in 2023.
In the wake of climate change, more and more intense extremes are expected. In 2023, many people struggled with heat that led to health problems as well as devastating forest fires, but also against torrential rains, floods and stronger storms. The human and financial costs are enormous.