Climate Facts: Greenhouse gas emissions reached record high in 2023, says UNEP

The complexities of climate change and its associated jargon can prove difficult to digest.

TheCable’s quick climate facts will help demystify these concepts through easy-to-understand and straight-to-the-point explanations.

Here are some to keep at the tip of your fingers:

• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says global temperatures could rise by 2.6-3.1°C over the course of the century if countries fail to achieve their new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

• Global greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high of 57.1 GtCO2e in 2023, according to UNEP.

• The organisation said the new record amounted to a 0.13 percent increase from 2022 emission levels. This, it said, was contributed by all sources of GHGs, except land use, land-use change and forestry CO2.

• A new report by Nature says the world may experience prolonged dry extremes in many regions in the coming years.

• The study revealed that the increase in the longest annual dry spell will be 42–44 percent greater on average than ‘mid-range’ or ‘high-end’ future — which could be 10 days longer than expected.