As Earth endured its hottest year on record in 2023, records for six other climate change metrics were also broken, according to a new UN report.
The State of the Global Climate 2023 report published by the World Meteorological Organization – the Geneva-based UN’s climate agency – confirmed what has already been widely reported.
However, the WMO said that 2023 also capped the planet’s warmest 10-year period on record.
According to the report, the world’s average near-surface temperature in 2023 was 1.45 degrees Celsius (2.61 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial baseline.
“Sirens are blaring across all major indicators… Some records aren’t just chart-topping, they’re chart-busting. And changes are speeding up,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a video message for the launch.
Based on data from multiple agencies, the study confirmed that 2023 was the warmest year on record, with the global average near-surface temperature at 1.45°C above the pre-industrial baseline. It crowned the warmest ten-year period on record.
“The scientific knowledge about climate change has existed for more than five decades, and yet we missed an entire generation of opportunity,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said presenting the report to the media in Geneva. She urged the climate change response to be governed by the “welfare of future generations, but not the short-term economic interests”. “As Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, I am now sounding the red alert about the state of the global climate,” she emphasised.
However, climate change is about much more than air temperatures, the WMO experts explain. The unprecedented ocean warmth and sea level rise, glacier retreat and Antarctic sea ice loss, are also part of the grim picture. On an average day in 2023, nearly one-third of the ocean surface was gripped by a marine heatwave, harming vital ecosystems and food systems, the report found.
The glaciers observed suffered the largest loss of ice on record – since 1950 – with extreme melt in both western North America and Europe, according to preliminary data.
