09 January 2024
Copernicus, the European climate agency, says 2023 broke records for global warmth.
The average temperature for the year was 1.48 degrees Celsius above the world's pre-industrial temperature.
World climate experts agree that an average increase up to 1.5 degrees or higher could lead to extreme climate disasters. They set the 1.5 degree Celsius mark at a 2015 climate conference in Paris.
However, January 2024 is measuring so warm that it is likely to average at or beyond the 1.5 mark for the month, says Samantha Burgess. She is Deputy Director of Copernicus. Scientists have repeatedly said an average of 1.5 degrees of warming over as much as thirty years would violate the limit.
The 1.5 degree goal "has to be (kept) alive because lives are at risk and choices have to be made," Burgess said.
The record heat made life difficult and sometimes deadly in Europe, North America and China, among other places. Climate scientists say heat is not the only problem related to temperature rise. They say severe weather events such as heavy rains that cause flooding, along with wildfires and extreme dry conditions are connected to the rising temperatures.
For the first time, nations meeting on climate late in 2023 agreed that the world needs to move away from polluting fossil fuels.
Copernicus said the average temperature in 2023 was one-sixth of a degree Celsius above the past record, set in 2016. The average temperature was 14.98 degrees Celsius.
"It was record-breaking for seven months. We had the warmest June, July, August, September, October, November, December," Burgess said. "It wasn't just a season or a month that was exceptional. It was exceptional for over half the year."
Malte Meinshausen is a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He says about 1.3 degrees Celsius of the warming comes from greenhouse gases, with another 0.1 degrees from usual weather conditions such as El Nino.
Copernicus records only go back to 1940. Other organizations will announce climate reports for 2023 on Friday. The groups include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. and Great Britain's Meteorological Office.
While some national weather offices only have records going back to the 1940s, many scientists agree that this is the warmest period for the Earth in over 100,000 years.
Copernicus said there were two and nearly three days in 2023 where the world's average temperature was at least 2 degrees above that of the pre-industrial period. In addition, for more than half the year, the world average temperature was 1.5 degrees warmer than in the mid-1800s.
I'm Dan Friedell.
Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press.
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Words in This Story
record –n. a number or result surpasses the greatest or highest from the past
average –n. a number that is calculated by adding quantities together and then dividing the total by the number of quantities
fossil fuels –n. a fuel (such as coal, oil, or natural gas) that is formed in the earth from dead plants or animals
greenhouse gases –n. polluting gases that cause the warming of the Earth's atmosphere