Following the warmest November – and almost certainly also the warmest December – on record, scientists are now certain that 2023 was the hottest year since records began in 1880.
—
The world is set to bid farewell to a “remarkable” year that will go down in history as the hottest on record, with global average temperatures at 1.46C above pre-industrial levels and 0.13C higher than the eleven-month average for 2016, currently the warmest calendar year on record.
The confirmation arrived this earlier this month, after the European Union Climate Change Copernicus Service (C3S) announced that November 2023 was the hottest November on record globally, with an average surface air temperature of 14.22C, 0.85C above the 1991-2020 average for that month and 0.32C above the temperature of the previous warmest November, in 2020.
A Record-Breaking Summer
This year, the world experienced its hottest June, July, and August ever. July remains the warmest month in history. Throughout that month, more than 6.5 billion people – approximately 81% of the global population – faced climate change-attributed heat.
The average global temperature between June and August 2023 was 16.77C (62.18F), 0.66C above the 1990-2020 average, making this summer the hottest ever recorded by a “large margin.” In Europe – the world’s fastest-warming continent, warming twice as fast as any other continent – temperatures were 0.83C above average at around 19.63C (67.33F).
“2023 has now had six record breaking months and two record breaking seasons. The extraordinary global November temperatures, including two days warmer than 2ºC above preindustrial, mean that 2023 is the warmest year in recorded history,” said Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess.
The extreme weather the world witnessed this year can be attributed to various factors, including natural variations like the influential El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, which has significantly altered global weather patterns and pushed global temperatures “off the charts.” The biggest culprit, however, remains humanity’s insatiable consumption of fossil fuels, which is associated with the release of huge quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This year, fossil fuels accounted for over 70% of energy supply globally.
Emissions have been at an all-time high of about 54 billion tons/year for about ten years, leading to an unprecedented increase in human-induced warming of over 0.2C per decade; if current emissions levels persist, humanity will likely reach 1.5C of warming – a threshold set by 195 governments in the 2015 Paris Agreement beyond which humanity will start experiencing severe climate damages across a wide range of ecosystem – in six years’ time.
“As long as greenhouse gas concentrations keep rising we can’t expect different outcomes from those seen this year,” said Carlo Buontempo, C3S Director. “The temperature will keep rising and so will the impacts of heatwaves and droughts. Reaching net zero as soon as possible is an effective way to manage our climate risks.”
You might also like: Extreme Heat Persists Around the World As Scientists Warn El Niño Has Yet to Peak
Warmer Oceans
Extreme temperatures did not only affect people around the world but also marine ecosystems, as sea and ocean temperatures reached their warmest surface temperatures on record. August as a whole saw the highest global monthly average sea surface temperatures ever recorded across all months, while daily temperature records were broken every day from July 31 to August 31, according to Copernicus data.
In places like Florida, ocean temperatures surpassed the 38C (100F) mark, adding to previous warnings over warming water putting marine life and ecosystems in peril. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean Sea’s surface temperature hit 28.7C (83.7F), the highest median recording since at least 1982.
According to an EU-backed study published in October, the rapid rise in ocean temperatures and water levels due to anthropogenic climate change is having far-reaching consequences on marine life and global weather systems. Through satellite and in situ observation, ocean reanalyses, and high-performance computing that enabled 4D observations of the ocean, the nearly 100 scientific experts who worked on the report were able to identify various “unusual” patterns across the world’s ocean systems, including changes in circulation currents, more frequent and intense marine heatwaves, and unexpected events in biological production.
Specifically, rising sea surface and subsurface temperatures can have serious implications for marine species, such as coral reefs, kelp, and fish, often resulting in mass die-offs and migrations that inevitably lead to lower catch amounts and increased pressure on the fishing industry. They can also impact the salinity and freshwater levels in the oceans, altering oceanic circulation, currents, and water cycles, and can lead to a rise in sea levels.
Future Outlook
At the UN climate summit earlier this month, COP28, world leaders reached an agreement that explicitly called on countries to reduce fossil fuel consumption. While falling short of the key “phase out” of fossil fuels, the final deal breaks new ground as it is the first time a COP text mentions moving away from planet-warming oil and natural gas, fuels that have underpinned the global economic development for nearly a century. Countries also agreed to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency improvements by 2030, though experts still say the commitments made so far are not enough to put the world on track to meet the Paris goal.
You might also like: Did COP28 Succeed or Fail?
