Geneva, 19 March 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Climate change was more visible than ever last year, the head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday in a report which stated the world faced a "red alert."

“Climate change is about much more than temperatures. What we witnessed in 2023, especially with the unprecedented ocean warmth, glacier retreat and Antarctic sea ice loss, is cause for particular concern,” Celeste Saulo said.

The WMO confirmed its preliminary estimates for the year. The global mean average temperature in 2023 was around 1.45 degrees Celsius above the level before industrialization (1850-1900). Prior to that, 2016 was the warmest year, with a rise of around 1.3 degrees.

The European Union's climate change watchdog Copernicus had indicated warming of 1.48 degrees in 2023.

The WMO - a UN agency - analyses data sets from Copernicus and several other renowned institutes together. As a result, its report on climate change is particularly broad-based and is regarded as a global benchmark.

According to the WMO, 90% of ocean regions experienced a heatwave over the course of last year. In addition, glaciers lost more ice than in any other year since records began in 1950, especially in North America and Europe.

With regards to Antarctic sea ice, there was one million square kilometres less than the previous record, which corresponds to an area roughly the size of Germany and France combined.

Last year, the global average sea level was higher than at any time since satellite measurements began in 1993, and in the past 10 years, sea levels have risen twice as fast as in the first 10 years since those measurements started.