2023 was the world's hottest year based on various parameters measured as early as 1850revealed the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the Earth observation program of the European space program.
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Due to the “unprecedented” anomalous temperatures, especially in the second half of the year, the average surface air temperature reached 14.98 °C in 2023, exceeding that of 2016 by 0.17 °C, holding the record for the warmest year so far.
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According to the Bonn (Germany)-based institution, between 1850 and 1900 it was also 0.60 °C above the average value of the last three decades and 1.48 °C above the pre-industrial reference value.
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 C3S, said during a news conference.
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“Basically, this means that our cities, streets, monuments, farms and all human activities in general have never had to contend with such a hot climate.” he added.
Last year was also the first in which the average temperature was 1°C above pre-industrial levels every single day, while almost half of the days exceeded the “critical limit” of 1.5°C, in comparison only 20 percent in 2016.
This does not mean that the limits of the Paris Agreement have been exceeded, Copernicus clarified, as these refer to temperature excesses over periods of at least 20 years, but it still represents a “catastrophic precedent.”
On two days in November, the corresponding pre-industrial temperatures were exceeded by more than 2 °C for the first time.
A list of negative records
The negative records don't end there, however, as Antarctic sea ice extent broke historic lows at daily and monthly levels in February 2023, while remaining at exceptionally low levels for eight months of the year.
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At the same time, concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane in the atmosphere were the highest ever recorded, with record annual estimates of 419 and 1,902 parts per million (ppm), respectively, 2.4 and 11 ppm higher than the previous year.
Global average sea surface temperatures were also unusually high, reaching record levels from April to December. They were associated with marine heat waves in areas of the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and the North Pacific. and large parts of the North Atlantic.
The main reason for this was the increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases, but the El Niño climate phenomenon, which began last July, also contributed to a lesser extent.
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In addition to the effects of El Niño, according to Buontempo, the main reason for the anomalies observed worldwide is the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations due to human use of fossil fuels. If this process cannot be reversed, “there is no reason to expect different results in the future,” warned the director of C3S, who in this case warned that “in a few years it will probably be 2023, which has broken a record , will be remembered as a cool year.”
EFE