Official announcements from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Study Confirms Summer 2023 as Hottest in 2,000 Years Due to Climate Change, El Niño

May 14, 2024, 06:00 PM

A new peer-reviewed study has confirmed that the summer of 2023 was the hottest in the past 2,000 years, surpassing even the warmest periods of the Roman Empire. The research, published in the journal 'Nature,' utilized temperature data derived from tree rings across nine northern sites to establish this unprecedented heat. The findings highlight that the summer of 2023 was almost four degrees warmer than the coldest summer during the same period. This extreme heat has been attributed to human-caused climate change, compounded by El Niño conditions. The summer was marked by wildfires across the Mediterranean, roads buckling in Texas, and strained power grids in China. The study's alarming results underscore the significant public health and environmental challenges posed by rising global temperatures.