According to the EU climate change service Copernicus, last year remained just below the 1.5 degree threshold – this is the value that was agreed in the Paris climate agreement: global warming should be limited to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times.
The global temperature was 1.48 degrees higher than the average for the years 1850 to 1900, as Copernicus announced on Tuesday in the “Global Climate Highlights 2023” report. “It is likely that temperatures in 2023 will be warmer than in the past 100,000 years,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy. Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Copernicus had already announced in December that the year was the warmest since records began in 1850. It can be assumed that a period of twelve months will be above the 1.5 degree threshold in January or February, it was now said. According to Copernicus, the global average temperature in 2023 was 14.98 degrees Celsius, 0.17 degrees higher than the previous record year of 2016. Experts believe it is possible that 2024 will be even warmer and that the entire year will exceed the 1.5 degree threshold for the first time might. However, that does not mean that the Paris 1.5 degree target has been missed, as longer-term average values are being looked at.
“A key cause of the unusual air temperatures in 2023 was the unprecedentedly high surface temperatures of the oceans,” says Copernicus. The main reason for the warm seas is the continued increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Another factor is the recurring weather phenomenon El Nino.
