Warmest year on record »Vekkans Nyheter

According to the European Union's climate service Copernicus, 2023 was the warmest year since measurements began 174 years ago. The average global temperature was measured at 14.98 degrees, which is 0.17 degrees warmer than the previous record year of 2016.

This year has been marked by extreme weather in large parts of the world. Record warm seas that caused coral reefs off Florida to vanish, extreme heat in Canada that caused the country's worst wildfires in history, widespread flooding in Libya, and record heat in countries like China, Iran, and Russia.

In addition to the record high average temperature, 2023 was also the first year in which all days were more than 1 degree warmer than during what are known as pre-industrial times (1850-1900). Nearly half of the days were more than 1.5 degrees warmer, and the global average was 1.48 degrees above pre-industrial levels. This affects the goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

In 2023, emissions of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, reached record levels. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, these are the biggest contributors to global warming. These factors contribute to increasing temperatures on land and in the seas. When ocean temperatures rise, it has very big consequences as the world's oceans play a crucial role in regulating the Earth's climate.

According to Erik Kihlstrom, a professor of climatology at SMHI, the El Niño climate phenomenon has also contributed to making 2023 a record year.
The fact that 2023 was a very warm year can partly be explained by the fact that it was a year that witnessed a strong El Niño. But that's not enough to explain why the atmosphere is warmer than normal in large parts of the world's oceans and in many other places, Kjellstrom told TT.

However, the effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon did not begin to appear until the second half of the year. According to climate scientist Emily Baker of the University of Miami, it is not unlikely that the effects of El Niño will have a greater impact on global temperatures in 2024.

The year 2023, which witnessed record high temperatures, confirms that climate change must be taken seriously. Global warming threatens the living conditions of hundreds of millions of people – already today. The dismantling of fossil fuels is therefore a question of the fate of all humanity. But this requires breaking down the economic and political power structures that sustain the use of fossil fuels.