European Union (EU) scientists revealed on Wednesday that 2023 is set to be the world’s hottest year in 125,000 years, as data from last month showed October was the hottest year by a wide margin.
Last month exceeded the previous highest October average temperature in 2019 by 0.4 degrees Celsius, according to Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), describing the temperature anomaly as “very extreme”.
The C3S statement said the anomaly made 2023 “almost certain” to be the hottest year ever recorded.
The heatwave is the result of fossil fuel emissions and the El Niño climate pattern, which warms the surface waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Although 2016 is the hottest year ever, 2023 is expected to surpass it.
As Copernicus’ dataset goes back to 1940, EU scientists were able to combine their data with those from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which showed that this was the hottest year in the last 125,000 years, Burgess said. Said.
Long-term data from the United Nations (UN) climate science panel IPCC include readings from sources such as ice cores, tree rings and coral deposits. Deccan Herald informed of.
Meanwhile, climate change is driving increasingly destructive extremes.
In 2023, this includes floods that killed thousands in Libya, extreme heat in South America and Canada’s worst wildfire season on record.
Globally, the average surface air temperature in October was 15.3°C (59.5°F), 1.7°C warmer than the average October temperature in 1850–1900, which Copernicus defines as the pre-industrial period .
The only other month to break the temperature record by such a large margin was September 2023.
“September really took us by surprise,” Burgess said. “So after last month, it’s hard to determine whether we’re in a new climate state. But now the records are falling and they’re surprising me less than they were a month ago.”
El Nino effect
The World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday that the current El Nino weather pattern, which is expected to last until at least April 2024, is raising concerns about further destruction from excess heat, including in Australia, which is losing forests. Prepare for severe fire season. Hot and dry conditions.
“Most El Niño years are now record-breaking as the excess global heat from El Niño adds to the ever-increasing human-caused warming,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania.
Mann’s findings come three weeks ahead of UN climate talks at the Conference of the Parties (COP28), Dubai, where nearly 200 countries will discuss stronger action against climate change.
The main focus will be on whether governments agree to phase out the burning of fossil fuels that emit carbon dioxide.
The United Nations and researchers estimate that global fossil fuel production will double by 2030 due to fossil fuel producers’ current plans to extract coal, oil and gas.
Despite countries setting ambitious targets to gradually cut emissions, global CO2 emissions reached a record high in 2022, highlighting the need for urgent action.
“We must not let the devastating floods, wildfires, storms and heatwaves we have seen this year become the new normal,” said Piers Forster, climate scientist at the University of Leeds.
“By rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, we could halve the rate of warming,” he said.
