NOVEMBER was the sixth month in a row in which a new worldwide heat record was set, making it likely that 2023 will be the hottest year ever recorded, scientists said yesterday.

This comes as the United Nations Cop28 climate conference, taking place in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, nears the end of its first week.

The European Space Agency’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said that last month was nearly a third of a degree Celsius warmer than the previous warmest November.

November was 1.75°C warmer than pre-industrial times, tying with October and behind September, for the highest average temperature of any month, the scientists said.

Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess said: “The last half-year has truly been shocking.

“Scientists are running out of adjectives to describe this.”

So far, this year has been 1.46°C warmer than pre-industrial times, about a seventh of a degree warmer than the previous warmest year of 2016, Copernicus scientists calculated. 

It’s only going to get warmer as long as the world keeps pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, Ms Burgess said, adding that “catastrophic floods, fires, heatwaves, droughts will continue.”

She warned: “2023 is very likely to be a cool year in the future unless we do something about our dependence on fossil fuels.”

At Cop28, yesterday’s sessions focused on transport, the second-worst sector for the carbon dioxide emissions warming the planet, with panels on subjects such as expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure and decarbonising urban freight transport.

Despite the rapid growth of electric vehicles in some countries, oil still accounts for nearly 91 per cent of the energy used in the transport sector, according to the International Energy Agency. 

The climate talks have notched up some measured wins since they opened last Thursday, most notably the creation of a loss and damage fund to compensate countries hit by climate disasters. 

Fifty oil companies have pledged to reach near-zero methane emissions by 2030, though this commitment to slash greenhouse gases falls “short of what is required,” according to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres.

New Climate Institute’s Niklas Hohne warned: “We need to phase out fossil fuels completely without a back door.

“At this conference, there’s actually many back doors being proposed at the briefing table for prolonging the life of fossil fuels.”