2023 Set to be Hottest Year on Record, WMO Warns of Urgent Need for Action on Climate Change

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has announced that 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, with global temperatures reaching 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. This is just one-tenth of a degree under the target limit for the end of the century as laid out by the Paris climate accord in 2015.

The WMO report warns of worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, wildfires, glacier melt, and heat waves in the future. This adds to the urgency world leaders face as they wrestle with phasing out fossil fuels at the United Nations annual climate summit COP28, which began Thursday in Dubai.

The WMO secretary-general said the onset earlier this year of El Nino, the weather phenomenon marked by heating in the Pacific Ocean, could tip the average temperature next year over the 1.5-degree (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold.

The WMO report also noted that the average temperature for the year is up some 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times, and that with a month to run, 2023 will reach global warming of about 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 Fahrenheit).

The WMO’s findings are a stark reminder of the urgent need for action to address climate change. The Paris climate accord set a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and the WMO report shows that the world is on track to exceed this target. World leaders must take immediate action to reduce emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change.