The year 2023 will surely go down in history as the hottest ever recorded, according to projections from the Copernicus service, which confirm a new record in the month of October, with an average temperature on the Earth’s surface at 15.3 degrees (1.7 degrees higher than usual for those dates in the pre-industrial era).
The October anomaly – the second highest to date in a specific month – occurred after the three successive records of July, August and September that certified the most extreme summer ever recorded.
“The first ten months of 2023 have as a whole marked an increase of 1.43 g compared to the pre-industrial era,” warned Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus climate service, who predicted that 2023 will “virtually” surpass 2016 as the hottest year. “The sense of urgency for more ambitious climate action, with everything that has happened this year, cannot be greater on the eve of COP28.”
In the COP28 by Dubai, Countries must review the “global balance” of climate action, with the aim of “continuing efforts” to limit warming to 1.5 degrees set by the Paris Agreement. It is estimated that the average increase in global temperatures is already at 1.2 degrees and that the ceiling could be exceeded in the next decade with the current trend.
“Throughout this year we have had heat waves and droughts that make it even more difficult to withstand extreme temperatures, and floods that have caused thousands of deaths and displacements,” warns Friederike Otto, climate expert at the Imperial College London. “These are the records that really count.”