2023 officially warmest year on record by a huge margin, World Meteorological Organization confirms

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has officially confirmed that 2023 is the hottest year on record by a huge margin, smashing global temperature records.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has officially confirmed that 2023 is the hottest year on record by a huge margin, smashing global temperature records.

The yearly average global temperature approached 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which is significant because the Paris Agreement on climate change aims to limit the long-term temperature increase to no more than the same amount.

According to the agreement, the long-term increase is calculated as an average over decades rather than an individual year like 2023.

Global temperatures in every month between June and December set new monthly records, with July and August registering as the hottest months on record, the UN agency said in a statement.

Strictly, the WMO found that the annual average global temperature was 1.45 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels. They consolidated six leading datasets used for monitoring global temperatures, all of which ranked 2023 as the warmest year on record. The datasets included those developed and maintained by space and meteorological agencies in the US - NASA and NOAA - along with those in the UK, Europe and Japan, before arriving at their conclusions regarding the year 2023.

"Climate change is the biggest challenge that humanity faces. It is affecting all of us, especially the most vulnerable," said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.