2023 was hottest year on record, with temperatures close to 1.5°C

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) says 2023 was the hottest year on record.

The report which was released on Tuesday, confirmed 2023 as the warmest calendar year in global temperature data records since 1850.

Human activities have made the planet warmer and have exacerbated extreme weather patterns.

According to the EU’s climate service, last year had a global average temperature of 14.98°C. This, it said, was 0.17°C higher than the previous highest annual value in 2016.

It said 2023 was 0.60°C warmer than the 1991 to 2020 average and 1.48°C warmer than the 1850 to 1900 pre-industrial level.

The report also projected that January or February 2024 will exceed 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level.

C3S said the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose to the highest level recorded — 419 parts per million, in 2023.

The report added that 2023 was also the first year in which every day was more than 1C hotter than pre-industrial times.

“2023 marks the first time on record that every day within a year has exceeded 1°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial level,” the report reads.

“Close to 50 percent of days were more than 1.5°C warmer than the 1850-1900 level, and two days in November were, for the first time, more than 2°C warmer.

“Annual average air temperatures were the warmest on record, or close to the warmest, over sizeable parts of all ocean basins and all continents except Australia.

“Each month from June to December in 2023 was warmer than the corresponding month in any previous year.

“July and August 2023 were the warmest two months on record. Boreal summer (June-August) was also the warmest season on record.

“September 2023 was the month with a temperature deviation above the 1991–2020 average larger than any month in the ERA5 dataset.

“December 2023 was the warmest December on record globally, with an average temperature of 13.51°C, 0.85°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.78°C above the 1850-1900 level for the month.”

The report comes shortly after the COP28 summit in Dubai, where countries agreed for the first time to phase down and transition from fossil fuel — the main cause of rising temperatures.