Significant climate milestones of the year 2023 from Vajirao & Reddy Institute

Significant climate milestones of the year 2023

• The year 2023 is significant in terms of facing climate extremes as it registered the hottest summer on record.
• The year also saw some significant steps at the United Nations Climate Summit.

2023, Hottest year on record ever:

• The year 2023 saw temperature records being broken every next month and the year is all but set to be declared as the hottest in the history.
• According to Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), year 2023 was 0.1°C warmer than the ten-month average for the year 2016, currently the warmest calendar year on record, and it is also 1.43°C warmer than the pre-industrial reference period from January to October.
• It is being said that year 2023 will be the warmest year on record, and is currently about 1.43°C above the preindustrial average.

Highest sea surface temperature ever recorded:

• As per the analysis of the U.S. National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), nearly 48% of global oceans saw marine heat waves in August 2023, which is an area larger than for any other month since the start of the record in the year 1991.
• Marine heat waves refers to the periods of unusually warm ocean temperatures (warmer than 90% of the previous observations for a given time of year).
• Global sea surface temperatures (SST) are also usually at their highest in March in this year.
• According to C3S data this year, global average SSTs remained at record high levels throughout April, May, June, and July 2023, with the largest SST anomaly for any July on record.

Lowest Antarctic Sea ice extent:

• Sea ice refers to the area of ice that in this particular case covers the Antarctic Ocean at a given time.
• In the year 2023, Antarctic Sea ice maintained record low ice growth since April month.
• According to NOAA, sea ice in the Antarctic reached extent of 16.96 million square km (annual maximum extent) on September 10, 2023, setting a record low maximum in the satellite record that began in 1979.
• This year’s maximum is 1.03 million square km, below the previous record low set in 1986.

Record level carbon dioxide:

• Global carbon dioxide emissions which is one of the main greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are predicted to have hit a record level high in 2023 which is up 1.1% from 2022.
• However, The Global Carbon Budget Report which was published in December 2023 also noted that overall CO2 emissions, which reached a record high last year, have stabilized in 2023 due to a slight decrease from uses of land like deforestation.

Loss and damage fund:

• On a positive side, while the year 2023 saw many climate extremes breached, it also saw the creation of a loss and damage fund for the first time ever in the history.
• The fund is aimed at helping the developing countries to mitigate the impact of climate change.
• The fund was first announced at the conclusion of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, last year.
• The COP28 member countries accepted to make a loss and damage fund operational, right on the very first day of this year’s Climate Summit in Dubai.
• The famous loss and damage fund will be based at the World Bank but it will be managed by an independent secretariat.
• As per the head of UN Climate Change, the fund has received pledges of $792 million from governments even though billions of dollars are still required to meet its purpose.

COP28 declaration on climate impact on food systems:

• Nearly 134 countries at COP28 signed a declaration pledging to tackle the climate impacts of the food industry for the first time in the history of Climate Summits.
• These countries represent nearly about 5.7 billion people, which include 70% of the food we eat, 500 million farmers, and also 76% of total emissions from the global food system.
• However, there is a criticism that the declaration contains no quantified targets and does not take account of livestock.