The Hottest Year on Record: 2023 Set to Break Records Amid Climate Crisis
Last month was the hottest October since records began, with the average global temperature soaring to 1.7C above late-1800s levels. Now, scientists are warning that 2023 is on track to be the warmest year on record, with temperatures currently 1.43C above the pre-industrial average.
Samantha Burgess, the deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, stated, “We can say with near certainty that 2023 will be the warmest year on record. The sense of urgency for ambitious climate action going into Cop28 has never been higher.”
The impact of this record-breaking heat is already being felt around the world. Extreme heatwaves and droughts have caused thousands of deaths and displaced many more, leading Imperial College London climate scientist Friederike Otto to emphasize that the Paris agreement is a human rights treaty.
As the planet continues to heat up, the Amazon is struggling with drought amid deforestation, exacerbating the climate crisis even further. Despite global leaders’ promises to limit warming to 1.5C, current policies are set to heat the planet by about 2.4C.
The Copernicus scientists attribute the extreme temperatures to a mix of factors, including greenhouse gas pollution, the return of the natural weather pattern El Niño, and a drop in sulphur pollution and a volcanic eruption in Tonga.
The global temperature anomaly for October 2023 was the second highest across all months in its dataset, with the 10-month average beating the previous record set in 2016.
Climate scientists are urging for rapid and massive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid repeating headlines of record-breaking warmth and to limit the severity of extreme weather conditions that accompany a rapidly warming world.
With the climate crisis at a critical point, the urgency for ambitious climate action has never been higher, as the world gears up for the landmark climate summit this month.