2023 officially confirmed the hottest year on record

Last year, 2023, officially dethroned 2016 as the hottest year on record, but scientists worry this may just be the beginning.

New data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms 2023 was indeed the warmest year since 1850, with average global air temperatures clocking in at 14.98°C – a “dramatic testimony” to our departure from Earth’s historical climate, as Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo called it.

“The smashed record last year is a sign the world is inching closer to reaching 1.5°C of warming,” the level agreed upon as a critical limit in the Paris Agreement, warns Professor Piers Forster, interim chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee.

“We cannot let these impacts become the new normal, and nor do we have to,” he urges, highlighting the potential of immediate action like cutting coal use and reducing methane emissions.

The new temperature beat the previous record set in 2016 “by a large margin” of 0.17C.

Copernicus found 2023 was on average 1.48C warmer than levels before industrial times, when humans began burning fossil fuels at scale.

Why So Hot?

2023’s heat stemmed from a potent cocktail of factors. Professor Richard Betts of the UK’s Met Office points to our own relentless greenhouse gas emissions and the transition to a warming El Niño weather pattern.

This trend is poised to continue, with Met Office scientists predicting 2024 as another record-breaking year, possibly even breaching the 1.5°C threshold for the first time.

The record heat wave wasn’t limited to land. Copernicus reports alarming lows in Antarctic sea ice for eight months of 2023, while global average sea surface temperatures soared to new highs from April onwards.

While the news is grim, climate scientists emphasize the crucial role of swift action.

Dr. Friederike Otto of Imperial College London stresses, “Every tenth of a degree matters. Even if we end up at 1.6°C instead, it will be so much better than giving up.” Professor John Marsham of Leeds University echoes this sentiment, urging rapid fossil fuel reduction to “preserve the liveable climate that we all depend on.”