2023 was the hottest year on record

2023 was officially declared the hottest year on record. The average global temperature was approximately 1.48 degrees Celsius higher than in the pre-industrial era, exceeding all previous recorded averages.

The BBC website reported the new global temperature record. The European climate service attributes the sharp rise in average global temperatures mainly to greenhouse gas emissions and the El Niño phenomenon.

According to the agency, 2023 saw an unprecedented rise not only in average air temperatures, but also in sea surface temperatures. They set a new record every month from last July onward.

The unprecedented margins by which monthly records were broken were also remarkable, underscoring the significance of these temperature spikes around the world. Weather forecasts had not predicted that it would be the hottest year on record. In the second half of the year, however, there were several runs of large weekly fluctuations, with new global temperature highs recorded on more than 200 days.

The warming was attributed not only to climate change, but also to the rapid onset of the El Niño phenomenon, which released a large amount of heat from the eastern Pacific Ocean into the atmosphere. El Niño’s rapid and powerful impact on air temperatures raised questions about exactly how climate change affected temperatures in 2023.

Extremes are likely to become increasingly common

The far-reaching impact of the warming was evident around the world, causing extreme weather events such as heatwaves, wildfires in Canada and the United States, droughts, and flooding in East Africa and Europe. Scientists expect these extremes to occur more frequently in the future. Other indicators of climate change also intensified last year. Scientists report record-low levels of Antarctic sea ice, extreme glacier melt and numerous marine heatwaves.

Forecasts for how temperatures will rise in 2024 remain uncertain. Whether the 1.5-degree Celsius warming threshold will be exceeded—the target set by the Paris Agreement—will therefore depend primarily on El Niño, as greenhouse gas emissions will not cause a sudden year-on-year increase in temperatures. The long-term warming trend, however, continues to be attributed mainly to human activity.

The COP28 climate summit highlighted the need to address fossil fuel consumption, although the conference commitments lack enforcement mechanisms. Although the 1.5-degree Celsius target is unlikely to be met, efforts to expand renewable energy, cut emissions and adapt to climate change could mitigate some of its impacts.