Disturbing record: in 2023 we will experience the hottest year ever recorded, reveals Copernicus

First modification: 01/09/2024 – 19:10

5 min

2023 was the hottest year globally ever recorded, revealed on Tuesday, February 9 the annual report of the European Climate Observatory Copernicusthe Earth observation program linked to the European space program.

Due to the “unprecedented” anomalous temperatures, the average air temperature in 2023 reached 14.98 ° C, exceeding that of 2016, which held the previous record, by 0.17 ° C.

Copernicus had already warned in December, before having the results for the last month of the year, that 2023 was going to break the record for the warmest year. The European observatory has preserved climate data since 1850.

Behind this increase in temperature, appears the long list of climate disasters that affected the planet during the last 12 months: giant fires in Canada, extreme droughts and floods in the Horn of Africa, unprecedented heat waves in summer in Europe, United States and China, devastating rains and ever stronger hurricanes on the American continent and much more.

2023, “one of the warmest in the last 100,000 years”

The year 2023 “was most likely the warmest” in history and “possibly one of the warmest in the last 100,000 years”Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said during a press conference.

“Basically this means that our cities, roads, monuments, farms, all human activities, in general, have never had to deal with such a warm climate,” he added.

According to the institution based in Bonn, in Germany, the year 2023 will be 0.60 °C above the average levels of the last three decades and 1.48 °C above the pre-industrial reference levels, from between 1850 and 1900.

“Every day in 2023 had global temperatures more than 1°C warmer than the 1850-1900 level for that time of year. Two days were more than 2°C warmer than 1850-1900, the first time the 2°C level has been exceeded,” the observatory report stated.

Of the nearly 30,700 days since 1940, the 46 warmest were measured in 2023all of them during last summer, between July and August, according to Copernicus data analyzed by AFP.

In Europe, 2023 was the second warmest year, behind 2020.

The 1.5°C limit established by the Paris Agreement is approaching

This is the first time that the average annual temperature has come so close to the 1.5°C level established in the Paris Agreement in 2015. That year, some 200 countries committed to limiting global warming to a maximum of 2 °C, and ideally at 1.5°C.

In its report, Copernicus says the 1.5°C mark of warming over a 12-month period “is likely” to be measured “in January or February 2024.” However, the record average temperature of 2023 does not mean that the temperature limit established in Paris has been exceeded, since the agreement refers to temperature excesses over a period of at least 20 years.

Likewise, the results of the Copernicus report echo those of COP28, the United Nations climate summit, which was organized in the emirate of Dubai a month ago. The countries present tried to give new impetus to the Paris Agreement, opening the door to a progressive abandonment of fossil energies, which represent the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the Copernicus report reveals that The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane in the atmosphere were the highest ever recordedwith a record annual estimate of 419 and 1902 parts per million (ppm).

The oceans are overheating in a “persistent and unusual” way

The average temperatures of the oceans were also abnormally high and reached unprecedented levels for the period from April to December. The report warns that the oceans are overheating in a “persistent and unusual” way.

These temperatures threaten marine life, increase the intensity of storms and warm the atmosphere.

Climatologists examine them with special attention, aware of the important role of the oceans in climate regulation: they absorb more than 90% of the excess heat caused by human activity.

This increase in temperatures also affects sea ice.

The melting was accentuated in the ice sheets of Antarctica, whose surface fell to record levels during two-thirds of the year.

If this process cannot be reversed, “there is no reason to expect different results” in future years, warned Carlo Buontempo.

“In a few years, 2023, which broke a record, will probably be remembered as a cool year,” concluded the C3S director.

With EFE and AFP