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Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
Environment
RFI

UN confirms 2023 set to be hottest year ever recorded

A man runs on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, in July 2023. This year is likely to be the hottest ever on record, according to the United Nations weather agency. © Michael Probst/AP

As the Cop28 climate conference opens in Dubai, the United Nations weather agency has warned that 2023 has broken several climate records and is set to be the hottest ever recorded.

"It's a deafening cacophony of broken records," said the head of the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, Petteri Taalas, about the provisional 2023 State of the Global Climate report, published Thursday.

"Greenhouse gas levels are record high. Global temperatures are record high. Sea level rise is record high. Antarctic sea ice is record low."

Extreme weather left “a trail of devastation and despair”, according to the report, which concludes with a call for urgent action to rein in global warming and stem the havoc following in its wake.

Effects of El Niño to continue

After a record hot summer and the months of September and October, the WMO shows that data through the end of October showed that average global temperatures in 2023 were already around 1.4°Celsius above pre-industrial levels, nearing the 1.5°C limit laid out by the 2015 Paris climate accord.

The report also showed that the past nine years were the hottest years since modern records began.

The agency is due to publish its final report in the first half of 2024, but it said the final two months are “very unlikely to affect the ranking”.

It also warned that the El Niño weather phenomenon that has been heating the Pacific Ocean was "likely to further fuel the heat in 2024."

'Drastic measures' needed

Scientists have warned that humans will soon be unable to limit warming to a manageable level.

"These are more than just statistics," Taalas said, warning that "we risk losing the race to save our glaciers and to rein-in sea level rise."

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the record heat findings "should send shivers down the spines of world leaders."

In a video address to the Cop28 climate conference that opened Thursday in Dubai, he called on world leaders to commit to drastic measures to rein in climate change, including phasing out fossil fuels and tripling renewable energy capacity.

"We have the roadmap to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C and avoid the worst of climate chaos," he said.

"But we need leaders to fire the starting gun at Cop28 on a race to keep the 1.5°C limit alive."

(with newswires)

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