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.
2023 is set to be the warmest year on record!
— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) November 30, 2023
🔴 Greenhouse gas levels continue to increase
🔴 Record sea surface temperatures and sea level rise
🔴 Record low Antarctic sea ice
The WMO provisional #StateOfClimate report informs negotiations at #COP28: https://t.co/CcFFVvTKeB pic.twitter.com/bozkfieSAz
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."
A full month before the end of the year, the data already points to 2023 being the hottest year recorded in human history.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 30, 2023
Today’s State of the Global Climate report shows we’re in deep trouble.
Leaders must get us out of it – starting at #COP28. https://t.co/CeBvWe3r2v
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)
