Rewinding 2023: The hottest year in history

In July this year, the global temperature shot up to its highest point ever recorded. 

The earth had not been "this warm for the last 120,000 years," Samantha Burgess, deputy director at the European Commission's Copernicus Climate Change Service, told a press conference in August. 

Records were also broken for global sea surface temperatures, after "unusually high" temperatures this April that led to the ocean surface warming in July to some 0.51C above the 1991-2020 average, she added. 

It was not just July. Half of the year experienced record heat.

"The year 2023 has now had six record-breaking months and two record-breaking seasons," Samantha Burgess said in a statement this month.

The 2023 Provisional State of the Global Climate report of the WMO stated in November that 2023 is set to be the warmest year on record. 

"Data until the end of October shows that the year was about 1.40 degrees Celsius (with a margin of uncertainty of ±0.12°C) above the pre-industrial 1850-1900 baseline. The difference between 2023 and 2016 and 2020 - which were previously ranked as the warmest years - is such that the final two months are very unlikely to affect the ranking," according to the WMO.

On top of the worsening situation, governments across the globe failed to take any remarkable steps toward a brighter future.

"When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change, this year and next will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with climate change was finally exposed," former Nasa scientist James Hansen recently told The Guardian.

Scorched Earth

Natural disasters struck almost every part of the globe last year.

In June, scientists announced the arrival of the El Niño climate pattern.

Emerging in the central and eastern Pacific near the equator, El Nino is responsible for the warming and cooling of large areas of the ocean, which significantly influences where and how much it rains and changes in global temperature.

Driven by human-caused global heating and El Niño, the historic heat haunted 2023.

Data for the whole year is still being processed by scientists. However, the Japanese meteorological agency measured temperatures in the bygone year at 0.53C above the global average between 1991 and 2020.

This is far above the previous record set in 2016 when temperatures were 0.35C above that average. Over the longer term, the world is about 1.2C hotter than in preindustrial times.

In Bangladesh, the capital Dhaka recorded the hottest day in 58 years with the temperature reaching 40.4C in April. 

For all of the Northern Hemisphere, the summer of 2023 was the hottest ever with the mean temperature recorded at 16.77C. 

The extreme weather brought extreme disasters that wreaked unimaginable havoc across the globe. For instance, wildfires have burned over 18.5 million hectares in Canada between April and October, breaking the previous annual record of 7.1 million acres in 1995 by a large margin. 

In August, the deadliest wildfire in the United States' 100-year history hit Hawaii. It burned through around 2,000 acres, killing at least 115 people.

In Greece, wildfires killed dozens and guzzled through at least 150,000 hectares.

In the US, meanwhile, Arizona's capital Phoenix set a record for a global heatwave for 31 straight days with heat reaching 47.2 Celsius.

Even in December, many parts of the world are experiencing bouts of heatwaves. Up till the end, monthly temperature records were still being beaten in central Asia, South America, Europe and Australia.

Floods

Many parts of the world, including Bangladesh, experienced record rainfall and flooding.

On 10 September 2023, Storm Daniel made landfall in Libya, bringing severe weather conditions, including strong winds and sudden heavy rainfall that affected several areas in the country. 

According to Unicef, the massive flooding killed more than 4,300 people, while more than 8,500 were missing up till November. The flood had also hit Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. Greece saw a record 30 inches of rain, the equivalent of a year and a half of rain falling in 24 hours.

In the same month, torrential downpours led to flooding in Spain, parts of Hong Kong and New York City.

In August, Beijing recorded 744.8mm of rainfall, the highest since 1891.

In Bangladesh, Rajshahi witnessed its highest single-day rainfall in the last decade– 245.8mm.

Floods killed hundreds in various parts of the country including Chattogram, Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Niphamari, Sylhet, and Sunamganj.

The country also experienced multiple cyclones– Michaung and Midhili in November, Hamoon in October and Mocha in May.

Progress

Significant strides were made in 2023 towards a more sustainable future. In December, representatives from nearly 200 countries reached an agreement at the COP28 climate summit to commence the reduction of global fossil fuel consumption. This critical step, taken to mitigate the impacts of climate change, marked a notable shift towards the eventual phasing out of the oil age.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and its partners launched the Freshwater Challenge, aiming to protect and rejuvenate 300,000 km of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands worldwide by 2030. This initiative stands as the largest-ever undertaking in wetland and river restoration. In 2023, 43 nations, including many from the COP28, joined this effort, as reported by UNEP. The degradation of one-third of the world's wetlands over the past 50 years underscores the urgency of such conservation efforts, especially given the compromised state of rivers and lakes, the most degraded ecosystems globally.

Encouragingly, the ozone layer, crucial for shielding the Earth from ultraviolet radiation, is on a trajectory toward recovery within the next four decades. A report, including findings from the UN Environment Programme, projects a return to 1980 ozone values over Antarctica by 2066 and over the Arctic by 2045.

Furthermore, a groundbreaking agreement was formalised by the United Nations, extending environmental protections to two-thirds of the ocean beyond national jurisdictions for the first time. In November, the world's two leading climate polluters, the United States and China, committed to collaborative efforts to combat global warming by emphasising renewable energy over fossil fuels.

Contrasting reality

However, in reality, fossil fuels had a strong year in 2023, with several major projects approved, despite a warning from the IEA two years ago that there can be no more investment into new fossil fuel projects if the world is to meet international climate goals, CNN reported in November.

In March, the Biden administration greenlit the controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska, set to release a substantial amount of planet-heating pollution.

In July, the UK announced plans to expand oil and gas operations in the North Sea. A report from Oil Change International in September highlighted that the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Norway are collectively responsible for 51% of planned oil and gas expansion between 2023 and 2050.

A significant policy setback occurred in the European Union when Germany objected to a ban on the sale of new gas and diesel-powered cars. The loophole introduced at the last minute allows the sale of combustion engine cars beyond the 2035 deadline, provided they run on synthetic fuels.

Global coal consumption, the primary contributor to climate change, reached a record high in 2022, with demand remaining near peak levels in 2023 according to the IEA. China, a proponent of renewables, approved new coal projects at a rapid rate in the first half of the year, while the US, though reducing domestic coal consumption, saw a surge in exports, driven by Asian demand.

Amidst geopolitical events, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, some countries turned to coal as a substitute for Russian oil and gas. Germany temporarily reopened coal plants, and in October, the government approved bringing additional coal plants back online to avert shortages during the winter.

The battle against climate change has intensified, but uncertainties persist regarding whether these efforts will prove sufficient.