According to the EU’s climate service, 2023 has been officially declared as the hottest year on record, with temperatures about 1.48C higher than the long-term average prior to the extensive use of fossil fuels.

Human-caused climate change, along with the natural El Niño weather event, contributed to this rise in temperature.

A BBC analysis revealed that almost every day since July 2023, the world has experienced a new global air temperature high for that time of the year. Additionally, sea surface temperatures have exceeded previous highs.

This trend was also observed in the UK, where the Met Office reported that 2023 was the second warmest year on record.

These global records indicate that the world is closer to breaching key international climate targets.

The rise in temperature broke previous records by a wide margin, which is surprising since these records represent global averages.

The world has been getting warmer due to the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Although no major science body predicted 2023 to be the hottest year on record, the world experienced a remarkable and almost unbroken streak of daily temperature records during the second half of the year.