2023 Declared Hottest Year on Record: Urgent Call for Renewable Energy Solutions to Combat Climate Change!

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) of the United Nations, 2023 was the hottest year on record due to record highs for extreme climatic events, such as ocean warming.

Temperature changes are only one aspect of climate change. WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo stated at a UN news conference that “what we observed in 2023 is cause for particular concern,” particularly with the unprecedented ocean warming, glacier retreat, and loss of Antarctic sea ice.

According to the WMO State of the Global Climate 2023 report, heat waves, floods, droughts, wildfires, and rapidly strengthening tropical cyclones created misery and mayhem, upsetting millions of people’s daily lives and resulting in billions of dollars worth of economic losses.

According to the WMO study, 2023 was the hottest year on record, with the average near-surface temperature worldwide rising by 1.45C (with a ± 0.12C margin of error) over the pre-industrial baseline.

Additionally, it was the warmest ten-year span ever recorded.

“Never have we been so near – albeit on an interim basis at the moment – to the 1.5C reduction target of the Paris Agreement on climate change,” Saulo stated. “The WMO fraternity is raising the Red Alert to the world.”

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According to the analysis, the “hottest 10-year period” in history occurred between 2014 and 2023, with temperatures roughly 1.20C higher than the average for the years 1850–1900.

September saw the biggest temperature increase, rising by about 0.46-0.54C, with record temperatures recorded worldwide every month from June to December of 2023, the paper stated.

In 2023, a marine heat wave affected almost one-third of the world’s oceans on a typical day, damaging food chains and important ecosystems.

By the end of 2023, more than 90% of the ocean had at some time in the year experienced heat wave conditions.

Based on preliminary data, extreme melting in western North America and Europe caused the worldwide set of reference glaciers to lose the most ice ever recorded (since 1950).

The expanse of Antarctic sea ice was by far the lowest on record, reaching a maximum at the end of winter that was one million square kilometres less than the previous record year, or the combined area of France and Germany.

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“The climate crisis is the defining challenge that humanity faces and is closely intertwined with the inequality crisis—as witnessed by growing food insecurity, population displacement and biodiversity loss,” Saulo stated.

333 million people globally are acutely food insecure as of 2023, up from 149 million before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the World Food Organization (WMO), which cited data from 78 countries under its watch.

The WMO stated in the report that while extreme weather and climatic conditions may not be the primary cause, they are aggravating factors.

But in 2023, weather-related threats persisted in causing displacement, demonstrating how climate shocks erode resilience and provide fresh threats to protection for the most vulnerable groups.

The report pointed to a glimmer of hope in renewable energy generation, primarily driven by the dynamic forces of solar radiation, wind and the water cycle, that has surged to the forefront of climate action for its potential to achieve decarbonization targets.

In 2023, renewable capacity additions increased by almost 50% from 2022 for a total of 510 gigawatts (GW)—the highest rate observed in the past two decades, according to the WMO.