Climate change: 2023 on track to become hottest year on record This year is on track to become the hottest on record, with the global mean temperature to date this year 0.52 degrees Celsius higher than average, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Thursday. Scientists have said climate change combined with the emergence this year of the El Nino weather pattern, which warms surface waters in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, have fuelled recent record-breaking temperatures.