2023 was the year of record heat temperatures
ABC News
Humans have just experienced what will go down as the hottest year in recorded history -- so far -- as the planet experienced heating at an unprecedented pace.
Humans have just experienced what will go down as the hottest year in recorded history -- so far -- as the planet experienced heating at an unprecedented pace.
Throughout 2023, records for the warmest temperatures around the world were broken one by one. But record-eclipsing temperatures will no longer be an anomaly if greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming continue at the current pace, according to climate scientists.
In short, hotter-than-normal temperatures could soon become the norm if fossil fuel extraction does not significantly decrease before 2030, the next big deadline for many countries to meet their climate goals.
Emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 to keep global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius since Industrial Revolution temperatures -- the threshold outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement -- according to the United Nations.
"Climate change is here," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters during a press conference in July, amid scorching temperatures all over the planet. "It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning."
