The year 2023 has been confirmed as the warmest on record, driven by human-caused climate change and boosted by the natural El Niño weather event.
Last year was about 1.48C warmer than the long-term average before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels, the EU’s climate service says.
The year 2024 could be warmer than 2023 – as some of the record ocean surface heat escapes into the atmosphere – although the “weird” behaviour of the current El Niño means it’s hard to be sure, Dr Hausfather says.
It raises the possibility that 2024 may even surpass the key 1.5C warming threshold across the entire calendar year for the first time, according to the UK Met Office.
