UN Declares 2023 the Hottest Year on Record
In 2023, the Earth experienced unprecedented heat, leading the World Meteorological Organization to declare it the hottest year on record before its conclusion. The announcement came from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during a climate conference in Dubai, as reported by Bloomberg.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the average global temperature for the first 10 months of 2023 exceeded the pre-industrial period average by approximately 1.4°C.
"The record-breaking global warming should send shivers down the spines of world leaders and prompt them to take action. We are experiencing a real-time climate collapse, and its consequences are devastating," stated the UN Secretary-General during his address.
Greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for global warming, continued to rise in 2023 after reaching a historic peak the previous year. This resulted in record-high temperatures on land from July to September and in the oceans from April to September 2023.
The elevated temperatures, in turn, triggered extreme weather events, leading to numerous fatalities and forcing millions of people to change their places of residence. One of the most destructive events was the storm "Daniel," causing severe floods in Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey before lingering over the Mediterranean Sea and striking northeast Libya. The confirmed death toll was 4,345, with 8,500 still missing.
Partially explaining this year's record heat is the El Niño phenomenon, a cyclic warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean associated with temperature increases and changes in weather conditions worldwide. However, some regions experiencing unusually high temperatures, including the North Atlantic, do not align with typical El Niño patterns, as noted in the WMO report.
Scientists also point out that since 1971, oceans covering about 70% of the Earth's surface have absorbed approximately 90% of the heat generated by greenhouse gas emissions. While this has slowed atmospheric temperature rise, it has led to an increase in ocean temperatures, accelerating ice melting in the Arctic and Antarctica and raising sea levels in the World Ocean.
Overall, the ocean's heat level reached a record high in 2023, with the upper layers showing a tendency to warm, particularly in the Southern Ocean (the water basin around Antarctica) and the North and South Atlantic. The melting of glaciers and ice sheets further contributed to achieving a record-high global sea level.