2023 was worst year on record in terms of several climate metrics

New Delhi: From the climate perspective, 2023 wasn’t as bad as we initially thought it was.

It was worse.

It was already known that 2023 was the warmest year ever with average temperatures around 1.45 degrees Celsius (°C) above the pre-industrial average, nearly breaching Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C threshold.

Now, a new report has revealed that in 2023: greenhouse gas concentrations reached a record high; ocean heat content reached its highest level in the 65 years they had been tracked; the rate of sea level rise doubled in the decade; and a global set of reference glaciers experienced the largest loss of ice on record.

The World Meteorological Organisation’s State of the Climate in 2023 report released on Tuesday gives an ominous new significance to the phrase “off the charts”, WMO said.

The WMO report 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. The decade ended 2023 was also the warmest ten-year period on record. “Sirens are blaring across all major indicators... Some records aren’t just chart-topping, they’re chartbusting. And changes are speeding up,” said United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres in a statement.

“Never have we been so close – albeit on a temporary basis at the moment – to the 1.5°C lower limit of the Paris Agreement on climate change,” said WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo in a statement. “The WMO community is sounding the Red Alert to the world.Climate change is about much more than temperatures. What we witnessed in 2023, especially with the unprecedented ocean warmth, glacier retreat and Antarctic sea ice loss, is cause for particular concern.”

On an average day in 2023, nearly a third of the global ocean was gripped by a marine heatwave, harming marine ecosystems and food systems. By the end of the year, over 90% of the ocean had experienced heatwave conditions at some point during the year. The global set of reference glaciers suffered the largest loss of ice on record (since 1950), driven by extreme melt in both western North America and Europe, according to preliminary data with WMO.

There’s more: Antarctic sea ice extent was by far the lowest on record, with the maximum extent at the end of winter at 1 million sq km below the previous record year – equivalent to the size of France and Germany combined.

And observed concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record levels in 2022. CO2 levels are 50% higher than the pre-industrial era, trapping heat in the atmosphere and the long lifetime of CO2 means that temperatures will continue to rise for many years to come, WMO said.

Extreme weather events also threw life out of gear in several parts of the world, the report revealed. Flooding and extreme rainfall from Mediterranean cyclone Daniel affected Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Libya with particularly heavy loss of life in Libya in September. Tropical cyclone Freddy in February and March was one of the world’s longest-lived tropical cyclones with major impacts on Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi. Tropical cyclone Mocha, in May, was one of the most intense cyclones ever observed in the Bay of Bengal and triggered 1.7 million displacements across the region from Sri Lanka to Myanmar and through India and Bangladesh, and worsened acute food insecurity, WMO said.

Extreme heat affected many parts of the world, especially in July. Temperatures in Italy reached 48.2°C, and record-high temperatures were reported in Tunis (Tunisia) 49°C, Agadir (Morocco) 50.4°C and Algiers (Algeria) 49.2°C.

The only silver lining of 2023 was that renewable (energy) capacity additions increased by almost 50% from 2022, for a total of 510 gigawatts (GW). Such growth marks the highest rate observed in the past two decades and demonstrates the potential to achieve the clean energy goal set at COP28 to triple renewable energy capacity globally to reach 11 000 GW by 2030, the report pointed out.

“We have now started breaching 1.5°C on an annual basis. The only solution to control this crisis is to reduce the emission of GHGs (green house gases) substantially and move more into green energy. Carbon capture technology also can be explored but we are not sure how effective that will be. Cutting down emissions is the best way. Developed countries who emit more should make far stronger commitments to reduce GHG emissions. But, unfortunately that commitment is not seen,” M Rajeevan, former secretary, ministry of earth sciences had said on January 10.

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