European Union scientists have said last year was the planet's hottest on record by a substantial margin and likely the world's warmest in the last 100,000 years.
Scientists from the EU had widely expected the milestone, says that climate records were repeatedly broken.
Since June, every month has been the world's hottest on record compared with the corresponding month in previous years.
Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) director Carlo Buontempo said: "This has been a very exceptional year, climate-wise... in a league of its own, even when compared to other very warm years."
Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) director Carlo Buontempo
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C3S confirmed 2023 as the hottest year in global temperature records going back to 1850.
When checked against paleoclimatic data records from sources such as tree rings and air bubbles in glaciers, Buontempo said it was "very likely"2023 was the warmest year in the last 100,000 years.
On average, in 2023 the planet was 1.48 degrees Celsius warmer than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale, pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Last year, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere rose to the highest level recorded, of 419 parts per million, C3S said.
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Human-caused climate change wasn't the only factor the scientists said was behind the high temperatures in 2023.
Temperatures were also boosted by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean and contributes to higher global temperatures.
C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess said: "Whether there's been a phase shift or a tipping point, or it's an anomalously warm year, we need more time and more scientific studies to understand."
In 2023, there were deadly heatwaves from China to Europe, heavy rain which caused floods killing thousands of people in Libya and Canada's worst wildfire season on record.
EU scientists say 2023 hottest year on record as climate change blamed in official reports
Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Reuters claims the US suffered at least 25 climate and weather disasters with damages exceeding $1billion.
Meanwhile, droughts ravaged soybean crops in Argentina and wheat in Spain.
Professor of climate change at Newcastle University Hayley Fowler said the record-breaking year underlined the need to act "extremely urgently" to reduce emissions.
She added: "The speed of change in the political world and the will to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions is not matching the speed of change of extreme weather and warming."
