2023 was the hottest year on record… By far

Climate scientists are rings in the new year with alarming data: 2023 was the warmest year on record, and not by a small margin.

ONE new exhibition published by the Copernicus Climate Change Agency, a component of the European Union's climate change observation programme, found that “2023 is confirmed as the warmest calendar year in global temperature data dating back to 1850”.

According to the report, “2023 marks the first time on record that any day in a year has exceeded 1°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial level for that time of year” and that January 2024 is set to mark a 12-month period in which temperatures exceed the 1.5°C rise limit, scientists have warned could lead to catastrophic, irreversible climate impacts if sustained.

An increase in global temperatures was partly expected in 2023, as the El Niño effect has taken effect and is expected to continue until 2024. The report, however, clarified that several factors, including increased sea surface temperatures and the historic low extent of Antarctic sea ice contributed to a rise in global temperatures that “was not only a record relative to the 1991-2020 average, but also relative to a climate-adjusted average.”

The report is a stark warning about the ongoing effects of global climate change, which continues to contribute extreme weather conditions even as governments question their commitments to large-scale climate action.

Last month, nations at the UN's 2023 global climate summit, COP28, signed a historic agreement to “transition” off fossil fuels and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The agreement was the subject of tense negotiations at the summit and nearly collapsed due to efforts by oil-exporting countries to remove language calling for a complete “phasing out” of fossil fuel energy resources.

While the deal was hailed as an important step toward formalizing global efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions, climate activists and nations pushing for more aggressive regulations on non-renewable fuels blasted the summit as unnecessarily influenced by fossil fuel lobbies. fuel and special interest groups.

In a speech before the conference, Anne Rasmussen, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, cried the “litany of loopholes” granted to fossil fuel economies. “We've made an incremental move towards business as usual, when what we really needed was an exponential step change in our actions and support.”