Announced at COP28 Climate Talks: the Hottest Year in Recorded History

This year is “virtually certain” to be the hottest year in recorded history, the World Meteorological Organization announced on Thursday at COP28, the United Nations climate summit in Dubai where delegates from nearly 200 countries, including many heads of state and government, have gathered.

The organization said 2023 has been about 1.4 degrees Celsius, or about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit, above the global average preindustrial temperature from 1850 to 1990. The past nine years have collectively been the warmest in 174 years of recorded scientific observations, with the previous single-year records set in 2020 and 2016.

Although data for the end of the year is still to come, the organization is issuing a draft of its State of the Global Climate report this week in order to inform the talks in Dubai, where diplomats and leaders are trying to negotiate plans to accelerate the global transition away from the fossil fuels that are dangerously heating Earth.