EU climate service: 2023 confirmed as hottest year on record

Clyde Hughes
·2 min read
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UPI
The European Union's climate service, Copernicus, on Tuesday confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The European Commission's climate agency said on Tuesday that 2023 was the hottest year on record, beating the old record set in 2016.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service, run by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said heat spikes around the world from June through the end of the year led to an average temperature of 14.98 degrees Celsius, or 58.98 degrees Fahrenheit, about 0.17 degrees Celsius higher than in 2016.

The 2023 average also was 0.60 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1991-2020 average and 1.48 degrees Celsius more than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial level. In all, 50% of the days in 2023 were more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1850-1900 level.

Two days in November were more than 2 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1850-1900 level for the first time ever, the service said.

Last month, the service said November 2023 turned out to be the hottest on record, beating the old record set in 2020 by one-third of a degree Celsius at 14.22 degrees, or 57.59 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The annual data presented here provides yet more evidence of the increasing impacts of climate change," Mauro Facchini, head of Earth observation at the Directorate General for Defense, Industry and Space with the European Commission, said in a statement.

"The European Union, in line with the best available science, has agreed on an emission reduction of 55% by 2030 -- now just six years away. The challenge is clear."

Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said the string of high monthly temperatures is the most obvious evidence of how the climate has changed and the challenges against human civilization.

"This has profound consequences for the Paris Agreement and all human endeavors," Buontempo said. "If we want to successfully manage our climate risk portfolio, we need to urgently decarbonize our economy whilst using climate data and knowledge to prepare for the future."