Climate Change: Scientists report that 2023 will officially be the hottest year on record

CNN
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Earth’s temperature has been off the charts this year, and scientists have just confirmed what much of the planet has already felt: 2023 will officially be the hottest year on record.

Analysis by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found that global temperature this year will be 1.4 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels — close to the 1.5 degree threshold in the Paris Climate Agreement, which scientists say humans and ecosystems are exceeding. You will struggle to adapt.

Every month since June has been the hottest month on record, and November continues to warm. The month was about 1.75 degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels, and over two days temperatures rose by more than 2 degrees, worrying scientists about what this means for the planet in the coming years.

The report comes at a time when delegates from more than 150 countries are in Dubai COP28, the annual UN climate summitwhere the discussion about whether Phasing out fossil fuels that cause global warming It was heated.

“The timing couldn’t be more urgent,” Brenda Ekurzel, director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who was not involved in the report, told CNN.

She added: “Rich, high-emitting countries, which contributed the most to this record-breaking year, have a greater responsibility for a fair, rapid and financed phase-out of fossil fuels to help limit the rise of extreme weather events and the impacts of climate change.”

Scientists said the exceptional warmth of 2023 is the result of the combined effects of El Niño and human-caused climate change. Series of Deadly and remarkable heat waves Record temperatures have reached several continents this year Unprecedented ocean temperature Covered most parts of the world.

This year’s decline in the Northern Hemisphere was the warmest on record worldwide “by a significant margin,” according to Copernicus. November was also wetter than average in much of Europe, with Storm Ciaran bringing heavy rain and flooding to many areas including Italy.

As temperatures rise next year, the world seems to be doing well Track to break through 1.5 degrees of warming In the long term in the coming years. While it is alarming that global warming exceeds this temperature for months at a time, scientists are particularly concerned that the planet’s temperature will remain above 1.5 degrees in the long term.

Until 2022, it was Earth It improved about 1.2 degrees The past few years have made it unequivocally clear that the world is already feeling the alarming effects of the climate crisis, for which many were not prepared.

a Separate report The World Meteorological Organization, released on Tuesday, found that the decade between 2011 and 2020 was the hottest on record for the planet’s lands and oceans, with the rate of climate change at an “alarming” and “strongly charged” pace, significant glacier loss and rising global levels. sea ​​level during this decade. a period.

“As long as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise, we cannot expect results different from those we have seen this year,” said Carlo Bontempo, director of Copernicus. “Temperatures will continue to rise, as will the effects of heatwaves and drought.”