It will break a record set in 2016, underscoring that the world is closer than ever to the global warming thresholds that global leaders are seeking to avoid. Data from January through October shows the planet is likely to average 1.3 degrees Celsius to 1.5 degrees Celsius above a preindustrial norm this year, the WMO said.
Petteri Taalas, the organization’s secretary general, stressed that this year’s warming has had real-life harms around the world and pushed the planet to new weather and climate extremes.
“Greenhouse gas levels are record high. Global temperatures are record high. Sea level rise is record high. Antarctic sea ice is record low,” he said in a statement. “It’s a deafening cacophony of broken records.”
Taalas and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the data should incite urgency in the global leaders convening in Dubai, and remind them there is still hope that climate goals can be reached.
“We have the roadmap to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the worst of climate chaos. But we need leaders to fire the starting gun at COP28 on a race to keep the 1.5 degree limit alive,” Guterres said in a video message that played during the U.N. climate conference in Dubai.
1 comment
As [COP28 began](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/30/cop28-climate-summit-dubai-begins/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2), the World Meteorological Organization confirmed what appeared to be a foregone conclusion: that 2023 is assured to end up as Earth’s hottest year in human history.
It will break a record set in 2016, underscoring that the world is closer than ever to the global warming thresholds that global leaders are seeking to avoid. Data from January through October shows the planet is likely to average 1.3 degrees Celsius to 1.5 degrees Celsius above a preindustrial norm this year, the WMO said.
Constraining global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels [is the world’s most important climate goal](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2022/global-warming-1-5-celsius-scenarios/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5). Scientists say it is becoming increasingly out of reach but that achieving it would [save coral reefs](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/08/09/florida-coral-bleaching-ocean-temperature/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5), preserve polar ice and prevent dramatic sea-level rise. (Such warmth would need to sustain for years and decades at a time to face the worst consequences.)
Petteri Taalas, the organization’s secretary general, stressed that this year’s warming has had real-life harms around the world and pushed the planet to new weather and climate extremes.
“Greenhouse gas levels are record high. Global temperatures are record high. Sea level rise is record high. Antarctic sea ice is record low,” he said in a statement. “It’s a deafening cacophony of broken records.”
Taalas and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the data should incite urgency in the global leaders convening in Dubai, and remind them there is still hope that climate goals can be reached.
“We have the roadmap to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the worst of climate chaos. But we need leaders to fire the starting gun at COP28 on a race to keep the 1.5 degree limit alive,” Guterres said in a video message that played during the U.N. climate conference in Dubai.
**Read more, free with email registration:** [**https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/11/30/earth-hottest-year-wmo/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/11/30/earth-hottest-year-wmo/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)