The first three quarters of 2023 has seen exceptional heat globally, putting 2023 on track to be the warmest year since records began in the mid-1800s, and likely for millennia before as well.
The past four months, in particular, have far exceeded any prior records, with September smashing the prior record by around 0.5C.
In this latest “state of the climate” quarterly update, Carbon Brief finds:
- June, July, August, September and (very likely) October were the warmest respective months since records began.
- 2023 is now virtually certain to be the hottest year on record globally.
- A strong El Niño is expected to persist until mid-2024 in the majority of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forecast models.
- October is likely to be extremely warm based on daily data so far, though not quite as unusual as September.
- While the exceptional warmth of the last few months is primarily driven by a strong El Niño on top of human-driven warming, other contributing factors include an uptick in the 11-year solar cycle, an unusual volcanic eruption last year and a 2020 phaseout of planet-cooling sulphur dioxide in marine shipping fuels.
- Ocean heat content set a new record in September and has increased substantially over the past 12 months.
- Antarctic sea ice has been exceptionally far below the prior record low for the past six months, while Arctic sea ice remains at the low end of the historical range.
- Global temperatures are closely aligned with the projections from climate models.
Global temperatures have soared in recent months
After a cool start due to an unusually persistent “triple dip” La Niña event, global temperatures have soared in recent months driven by rapidly growing El Niño conditions.
This short-term natural variability builds on top of the roughly 1.3C warming that has occurred since the mid-1800s due to human emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
The figure below shows how global temperature so far in 2023 (black line) compares to each month in different years over the prior decade (coloured lines) in the Berkeley Earth surface temperature dataset.
Temperatures for each month from 2015 to 2023 from Berkeley Earth. Anomalies plotted with respect to a 1850-99 baseline. Chart by Carbon Brief.
Every month from June onward this year has set a clear record, with July, August and September shattering prior records by at least 0.3C (and around 0.5C in the case of September). The exceptional summer warmth means that it is now virtually certain that 2023 will be the warmest year on record.
In this latest quarterly state of the climate assessment, Carbon Brief analysed records from five different research groups that report global surface temperature records: NASA’s GISTEMP; NOAA’s GlobalTemp; Hadley/UEA’s HadCRUT5; Berkeley Earth; and Copernicus/ECMWF.
The figure below shows the annual temperatures from each of these groups since 1970, along with the average over the first nine months of 2023. (Note: at the time of writing, September data was not yet available for the Hadley/UEA record.)
Annual global mean surface temperatures from NASA GISTEMP, NOAA GlobalTemp, Hadley/UEA HadCRUT5, Berkeley Earth and Copernicus/ECMWF (lines), along with 2023 temperatures to date (January-September, coloured shapes). Each series is aligned by using a 1981-2010 baseline, with warming since pre-industrial based on HadCRUT5 values from the 1850-1899 to 1981-2010 periods. Chart by Carbon Brief.
The globe as a whole has warmed around 1C since 1970, with strong agreement between different global temperature records. All show that year-to-date 2023 records are higher than any prior annual record. However, there are larger differences between temperature records further back in time (particularly pre-1900) due to sparser observations and a resulting greater sensitivity to how gaps between measurements are filled in.
This year started out a bit on the colder side in all the different temperature records, with January only the seventh warmest January on record and February only the fourth or fifth warmest. March was the second warmest on record, April the fourth or fifth, and May the third warmest across all datasets.
However, from June onward each month has been unambiguously the warmest on record across all the different datasets. The respective rankings of each month in each dataset are shown below.
| GISTEMP | HadCRUT5 | NOAA | Berkeley | Copernicus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 7th | 7th | 7th | 7th | 7th |
| Feb | 4th | 4th | 4th | 5th | 5th |
| Mar | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd |
| April | 4th | 4th | 5th | 4th | 5th |
| May | 3rd | 3rd | 3rd | 3rd | 3rd |
| June | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| July | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| Aug | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| Sept | 1st | TBC | 1st | 1st | 1st |
Rankings of 2023 global temperature by month across different datasets.
The continued strengthening of El Niño over the next few months means that it is likely that this streak of record-setting warmth will continue.
The figure below shows a range of different ENSO forecast models produced by different scientific groups. The values shown are sea surface temperature variations in the tropical Pacific – the El Niño 3.4 region – for three-month periods.
Virtually all models expect El Niño conditions to remain until early-to-mid 2024. Most models project a strong El Niño (>1.5C Niño 3.4 sea surface temperature – SST – anomaly), but relatively few expect a “super El Niño” (>2.5C) as strong as the world saw in 2015-16 or 1997-98.
Extreme heat worldwide
Record-setting global temperatures contributed to record heatwaves in many regions over the recent northern-hemisphere summer. The figure below shows the parts of the world that saw record warm or cold temperatures over the first two-thirds of 2023 (January through to September) in the Berkeley Earth dataset.
Large parts of the North Atlantic saw record warm temperatures, as did the UK, large parts of Europe, the southern US and Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Korea, Japan and China.
Notably, no area on Earth saw record cold (or even the second-to-fifth coldest temperatures on record).
In September alone, 77 different countries – mostly in Europe and the tropics – set new monthly average records.
Virtually everywhere on the planet saw warmer-than-usual temperatures for the year so far, with the exception of the western US, India and Greenland.
The tropical Pacific shows a strong characteristic “warm tongue” associated with El Niño over the first nine months of the year. The global temperature anomalies (changes) relative to the 1951-80 period used by Berkeley Earth are shown in the map below.
October continuing the record warm streak
While global temperature records are not yet in for the full month of October 2023, real-time reanalysis products increasingly allow scientists to track global temperatures on a daily basis.
Reanalysis pulls together a huge amount of data from satellites, weather balloons, aeroplanes, weather stations, ships and buoys to provide a detailed look at how the Earth’s climate is changing in real-time.
Modern reanalysis products, such as JRA-55 and ERA5, use state-of-the-art methods to produce records that align well with traditional surface temperature datasets over recent decades.
In the figure below, Carbon Brief shows the daily global temperature anomaly values from the JRA-55 reanalysis product for each day since the record began in 1958 (grey lines). It shows the current year to date (2023) in red and the prior record warm year, 2016, in blue. Nearly every single day since mid-June 2023 has been warmer than any prior days since the JRA-55 record began in 1958 – and, potentially, much further into the past.
The heat map below focuses on 2023, showing each day in the year, with columns representing each month. The red shading shows the temperature anomaly of each day, with darker shading indicating more extreme temperatures. The map highlights how extreme the prior four months (from July onward) have been compared to the prior period.
With most of the data for the month of October now available in the JRA-55 reanalysis product, Carbon Brief estimates that October 2023 will be the warmest October on record, and is likely to exceed the prior record by at least 0.3C.
The figure below shows Carbon Brief’s estimate for October, with uncertainty intervals estimates based on the historical relationship between the first 19 days of the month available at the time of publication and the overall monthly average.
October is projected to not be quite as extreme as September’s record-shattering anomaly, but will still come in as the second highest anomaly of any month in 2023 to-date.
In addition to temperature anomalies, reanalysis products are able to provide an accurate near-real-time estimate of global absolute temperatures. The figure below shows the absolute temperature of each month of 2023 compared to all prior years in the record, with Carbon Brief’s October estimate and its uncertainties shown.
Unpacking the drivers of recent record warmth
The extreme surface temperatures seen over the past few months have triggered a broader debate in the scientific community around its potential drivers.
For example, the world has never seen a month exceed the prior monthly record by 0.5C – as experienced in September. The closest analogue is February 2016, where global temperatures beat the prior record by 0.47C.
However, February 2016 was shortly after the peak of a super El Niño event – when the effect of El Niño on global temperatures is expected to be the largest. September 2023, by contrast, occurred early in the evolution of the current El Niño event when the contribution to global temperatures is typically much smaller.
This has led to a search for alternative explanations of factors contributing to recent record warmth. While the rapid switch from modest La Niña conditions at the start of the year to growing El Niño conditions on top of human-driven warming remains the primary explanation, it cannot easily explain the full extent of extreme global temperatures over the past few months.
A number of different potential contributors to recent global temperature records have been identified, including an uptick in the 11-year solar cycle, an unusual volcanic eruption last year that put a large amount of water vapour into the stratosphere with minimal cooling sulphate aerosols, and a 2020 phaseout of planet-cooling sulphur dioxide in marine shipping fuels.
The figure below, developed by Dr Robert Rohde at Berkeley Earth, shows a current best-estimate of the impact of each of these effects over the past 10 years based on published studies to-date. The shading indicates a warming (red) or cooling (blue) influence on global temperatures.
While each of these factors are small on their own, their combined effects may be to add around 0.1C to global temperatures in 2023.
Temperatures are tracking climate model projections
Climate models provide physics-based estimates of future warming given different assumptions about future emissions, greenhouse gas concentrations and other climate-influencing factors.
The figure below shows the range of individual models forecasts featured in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) fifth assessment report – known collectively as the CMIP5 models – between 1970 and 2030, with grey shading and the average projection across all the models shown in black. Individual observational temperature records are represented by coloured lines.
In these models, estimates of temperatures prior to 2005 are a “hindcast” using known past climate influences, while temperatures projected after 2005 are a “forecast” based on an estimate of how things might change.
Twelve-month average global average surface temperatures from CMIP5 models and observations between 1970 and 2023. Models use RCP4.5 forcings after 2005. They include sea surface temperatures over oceans and surface air temperatures over land to match what is measured by observations. Anomalies plotted with respect to a 1981-2010 baseline. Chart by Carbon Brief.
While global temperatures were running below the pace of warming projected by climate models between 2005 and 2014, the past decade has been closer to the model average.
Currently the latter part of 2022 and early 2023 is suppressing the 12-month average compared to the most recent months, but observations are expected to be well above the model average by mid-2024.
Record high ocean heat content
Human-emitted greenhouse gases trap extra heat in the atmosphere. While some of this warms the Earth’s surface, the vast majority – around 93% – goes into the oceans. About two-thirds of this accumulates in the top 700 metres, but some also ends up in the deep oceans.
The figure below shows annual OHC estimates between 1950 and present for both the upper 700 metres (light blue shading) and 700-2000 metre (dark blue) depths of the ocean.
Monthly global ocean heat content (in zettajoules – billion trillion joules, or 10^21 joules) for the 0-700 metre and 700-2000 metre layers. Data from IAP. Chart by Carbon Brief.
In many ways, OHC represents a much better measure of climate change than global average surface temperatures. It is where most of the extra heat ends up and is much less variable on a year-to-year basis than surface temperatures.
Just about every year since 1991 has set a new OHC record, showing that heat has continued to accumulate in the Earth system as concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases have increased.
Over the last 12 months, ocean heat content has increased by 42 zettajoules, or around 72 times as much as the total energy produced by all human activities on Earth last year.
Record low Antarctic sea ice extent
Highly accurate observations of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice have been available since polar-observing satellites became available in the late 1970s.
The figure below shows both Arctic (red) and Antarctic (blue) sea ice extent in 2023, the historical range in the record between 1979 and 2010 (shaded areas) and the record lows (dotted black line).
Arctic and Antarctic daily sea ice extent from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. The bold lines show daily 2023 values, the shaded area indicates the two standard deviation range in historical values between 1979 and 2010. The dotted black lines show the record lows for each pole. Chart by Carbon Brief.
Arctic sea ice extent during the first three quarters of 2023 has been at the low end of the historical 1979-2010 range, but has not seen any record daily lows except for a few days in February and April.
The annual minimum sea ice extent in September was the sixth lowest on record, though still well above the record low set in 2012.
Weekly Arctic sea ice extent from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. Chart by Carbon Brief.
Antarctic sea ice, on the other hand, has set new all-time low records for most of 2023, set a new all-time low extent in February 2023, and has been far below any prior levels ever since mid May.
Weekly Antarctic sea ice extent from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. Chart by Carbon Brief.
The post State of the climate: Global temperatures throughout mid-2023 shatter records appeared first on Carbon Brief.
State of the climate: Global temperatures throughout mid-2023 shatter records
As a treaty to protect the High Seas entered into force this month with backing from more than 80 countries, major fishing nations China, Japan and Brazil secured a last-minute seat at the table to negotiate the procedural rules, funding and other key issues ahead of the treaty’s first COP.
The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) pact – known as the High Seas Treaty – was agreed in 2023. It is seen as key to achieving a global goal to protect at least 30% of the planet’s ecosystems by 2030, as it lays the legal foundation for creating international marine protected areas (MPAs) in the deep ocean. The high seas encompass two-thirds of the world’s ocean.
Last September, the treaty reached the key threshold of 60 national ratifications needed for it to enter into force – a number that has kept growing and currently stands at 83. In total, 145 countries have signed the pact, which indicates their intention to ratify it. The treaty formally took effect on January 17.
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“In a world of accelerating crises – climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution – the agreement fills a critical governance gap to secure a resilient and productive ocean for all,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.
Julio Cordano, Chile’s director of environment, climate change and oceans, said the treaty is “one of the most important victories of our time”. He added that the Nazca and Salas y Gómez ridge – off the coast of South America in the Pacific – could be one of the first intact biodiversity hotspots to gain protection.
Scientists have warned the ocean is losing its capacity to act as a carbon sink, as emissions and global temperatures rise. Currently, the ocean traps around 90% of the excess planetary heat building up from global warming. Marine protected areas could become a tool to restore “blue carbon sinks”, by boosting carbon absorption in the seafloor and protecting carbon-trapping organisms such as microalgae.
Last-minute ratifications
Countries that have ratified the BBNJ will now be bound by some of its rules, including a key provision requiring countries to carry out environmental impact assessments (EIA) for activities that could have an impact on the deep ocean’s biodiversity, such as fisheries.
Activities that affect the ocean floor, such as deep-sea mining, will still fall under the jurisdiction of the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
Nations are still negotiating the rules of the BBNJ’s other provisions, including creating new MPAs and sharing genetic resources from biodiversity in the deep ocean. They will meet in one last negotiating session in late March, ahead of the treaty’s first COP (conference of the parties) set to take place in late 2026 or early 2027.
China and Japan – which are major fishing nations that operate in deep waters – ratified the BBNJ in December 2025, just as the treaty was about to enter into force. Other top fishing nations on the high seas like South Korea and Spain had already ratified the BBNJ last year.
Power play: Can a defensive Europe stick with decarbonisation in Davos?
Tom Pickerell, ocean programme director at the World Resources Institute (WRI), said that while the last-minute ratifications from China, Japan and Brazil were not required for the treaty’s entry into force, they were about high-seas players ensuring they have a “seat at the table”.
“As major fishing nations and geopolitical powers, these countries recognise that upcoming BBNJ COP negotiations will shape rules affecting critical commercial sectors – from shipping and fisheries to biotechnology – and influence how governments engage with the treaty going forward,” Pickerell told Climate Home News.
Some major Western countries – including the US, Canada, Germany and the UK – have yet to ratify the treaty and unless they do, they will be left out of drafting its procedural rules. A group of 18 environmental groups urged the UK government to ratify it quickly, saying it would be a “failure of leadership” to miss the BBNJ’s first COP.
Finalising the rules
Countries will meet from March 23 to April 2 for the treaty’s last “preparatory commission” (PrepCom) session in New York, which is set to draft a proposal for the treaty’s procedural rules, among them on funding processes and where the secretariat will be hosted – with current offers coming from China in the city of Xiamen, Chile’s Valparaiso and Brussels in Belgium.
Janine Felson, a diplomat from Belize and co-chair of the “PrepCom”, told journalists in an online briefing “we’re now at a critical stage” because, with the treaty having entered into force, the preparatory commission is “pretty much a definitive moment for the agreement”.
Felson said countries will meet to “tidy up those rules that are necessary for the conference of the parties to convene” and for states to begin implementation. The first COP will adopt the rules of engagement.
She noted there are “some contentious issues” on whether the BBNJ should follow the structure of other international treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), as well as differing opinions on how prescriptive its procedures should be.
“While there is this tension on how far can we be held to precedent, there is also recognition that this BBNJ agreement has quite a bit to contribute in enhancing global ocean governance,” she added.
The post Big fishing nations secure last-minute seat to write rules on deep sea conservation appeared first on Climate Home News.
Big fishing nations secure last-minute seat to write rules on deep sea conservation
The annual World Economic Forum got underway on Tuesday in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, providing a snowy stage for government and business leaders to opine on international affairs. With attention focused on the latest crisis – a potential US-European trade war over Greenland – climate change has slid down the agenda.
Despite this, a number of panels are addressing issues like electric vehicles, energy security and climate science. Keep up with top takeaways from those discussions and other climate news from Davos in our bulletin, which we’ll update throughout the day.
From oil to electrons – energy security enters a new era
Energy crises spurred by geopolitical tensions are nothing new – remember the 1970s oil shock spurred by the embargo Arab producers slapped on countries that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War, leading to rocketing inflation and huge economic pain.
But, a Davos panel on energy security heard, the situation has since changed. Oil now accounts for less than 30% of the world’s energy supply, down from more than 50% in 1973. This shift, combined with a supply glut, means oil is taking more of a back seat, according to International Energy Agency boss Fatih Birol.
Instead, in an “age of electricity” driven by transport and technology, energy diplomacy is more focused on key elements of that supply chain, in the form of critical minerals, natural gas and the security buffer renewables can provide. That requires new thinking, Birol added.
“Energy and geopolitics were always interwoven but I have never ever seen that the energy security risks are so multiplied,” he said. “Energy security, in my view, should be elevated to the level of national security today.”
In this context, he noted how many countries are now seeking to generate their own energy as far as possible, including from nuclear and renewables, and when doing energy deals, they are considering not only costs but also whether they can rely on partners in the long-term.
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In the case of Europe – which saw energy prices jump after sanctions on Russian gas imports in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine – energy security rooted in homegrown supply is a top priority, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Davos on Tuesday.
Outlining the bloc’s “affordable energy action plan” in a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum, she emphasised that Europe is “massively investing in our energy security and independence” with interconnectors and grids based on domestically produced sources of power.
The EU, she said, is trying to promote nuclear and renewables as much as possible “to bring down prices and cut dependencies; to put an end to price volatility, manipulation and supply shocks,” calling for a faster transition to clean energy.
“Because homegrown, reliable, resilient and cheaper energy will drive our economic growth and deliver for Europeans and secure our independence,” she added.
Comment – Power play: Can a defensive Europe stick with decarbonisation in Davos?
AES boss calls for “more technical talk” on supply chains
Earlier, the energy security panel tackled the risks related to supply chains for clean energy and electrification, which are being partly fuelled by rising demand from data centres and electric vehicles.
The minerals and metals that are required for batteries, cables and other components are largely under the control of China, which has invested massively in extracting and processing those materials both at home and overseas. Efforts to boost energy security by breaking dependence on China will continue shaping diplomacy now and in the future, the experts noted.
Copper – a key raw material for the energy transition – is set for a 70% increase in demand over the next 25 years, said Mike Henry, CEO of mining giant BHP, with remaining deposits now harder to exploit. Prices are on an upward trend, and this offers opportunities for Latin America, a region rich in the metal, he added.
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Andrés Gluski, CEO of AES – which describes itself as “the largest US-based global power company”, generating and selling all kinds of energy to companies – said there is a lack of discussion about supply chains compared with ideological positioning on energy sources.
Instead he called for “more technical talk” about boosting battery storage to smooth out electricity supply and using existing infrastructure “smarter”. While new nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors are promising, it will be at least a decade before they can be deployed effectively, he noted.
In the meantime, with electricity demand rising rapidly, the politicisation of the debate around renewables as an energy source “makes no sense whatsoever”, he added.
The post Climate at Davos: Energy security in the geopolitical driving seat appeared first on Climate Home News.
Climate at Davos: Energy security in the geopolitical driving seat
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