UN warns 'planet on the brink' after 2014-2023 recorded as hottest decade ever

A fresh climate report confirming that multiple global heat records were shattered last year shows "a planet on the brink", the UN chief warned Tuesday. "Earth is issuing a distress call," Antonio Guterres said, concluding that the report by the UN's World Meteorological Organization showed that fossil fuel pollution was causing spiralling "climate chaos".

Global heat records were "smashed" last year, the United Nations reported Tuesday, with 2023 completing the warmest decade on record, as heatwaves stalked oceans and glaciers lost record ice. The United Nations' World Meteorological Organization issued its annual State of the Climate report, confirming preliminary data indicating that 2023 was by far the hottest year ever recorded. According to the WMO study, it occurred near the end of "the warmest 10-year period on record.".

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the report showed "a planet on the brink". "Earth's issuing a distress call," he said, pointing out that "fossil fuel pollution is sending climate chaos off the charts", and warning that "changes are speeding up".

The organization, upon reviewing the data, discovered that "records were once again broken, and in some cases smashed," and issued a warning that the figures "gave ominous new significance to the phrase 'off the charts."

According to a recent World Meteorological Organization study, records for greenhouse gas concentrations, surface temperatures, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice cover, and glacier retreat were once again broken, and in some cases destroyed. Heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and fast increasing tropical cyclones disrupted millions of people's daily lives and caused billions of dollars' worth of economic damage.

Additionally, acute food insecurity has more than quadrupled globally, from 149 million cases before to the COVID-19 pandemic to 333 million cases in 2023 (in 78 countries that the World Food Programme monitors). The report states that although extreme weather and climatic conditions may not be the primary cause, they are exacerbating factors.

In 2023, weather-related disasters remained to be the primary cause of relocation, demonstrating how climate shocks reduce resilience and introduce new threats to protection for the most vulnerable groups.