17 gennaio 2024 – Surface and satellites measurements agree: 2023 has been the warmest year on record at 1.43°C above the preindustrial level and around 1°C since 1970.

The effects of El Niño, a climate phenomenon that warms the atmosphere and affects weather patterns around the globe, the eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano in the Pacific Ocean and the reduction of pollution from shipping vessels, superimposed to those of the anthropic greenhouse gases has led us, at least temporarily, very close to the 1.5 threshold many believe is the beginning of the end. In reality, a 1.6 warmer world is not much different from a 1.4 one: the Earth is not going to boil when the threshold is reached. Science only tells us that the negative effects of climate change are nonlinear and increase more than proportionally to the warming of the Earth.

Has 2023 really been an “annus horribilis” because of the climate? No, quite to the contrary. On average, it has probably been one of the best years ever.