Climate Crisis

Ireland had warmest and wettest year on record in 2023 - CSO

Average temperature in 2023 was 10.96 degrees with 1,511 millimetres of rain recorded

Globally, nine of the 10 warmest years since 1850 occurred in the decade since 2014. Photograph: Charles Mcquillan/Getty Images
Globally, nine of the 10 warmest years since 1850 occurred in the decade since 2014. Photograph: Charles Mcquillan/Getty Images
Sarah Slater
Wed Jan 29 2025 - 14:17

Ireland had its warmest and wettest year on record in 2023, according to newly released data.

The average temperature for the year was 10.96 degrees and 1,511mm (1.51 metres) of rain fell, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

The publication notes that global temperatures have been increasing decade by decade since 1850. Nine of the 10 warmest years since 1850 have occurred since 2014.

The highest average annual temperature in the world over this time frame (14.98 degrees) was recorded in 2023. This was some 1.44 degrees above the average for the period 1850-1899.

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The CSO statistics also show that greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland fell by 6.8 per cent, some 4 million tonnes, in 2023 when compared to the previous year.

However, Ireland had the second highest emissions of greenhouse gases per capita in the EU in 2022 at 11.7 tonnes. China was the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases that year at 13.9 billion tonnes, more than twice the US figure of 6 billion. China’s emissions are up by 204 per cent when compared to the average 1990-1994.

In 2023, 1 per cent of urban wastewater received no treatment compared with 41 per cent over the two-year period from 1997-1999.

Renewable energy accounted for 41 per cent of electricity generation in Ireland in 2023, up from 5 per cent between 1990-1994.

The proportion of municipal waste sent to landfill in Ireland fell from an average of 67 per cent between 2001-2004 to 14 per cent in 2022. Fertiliser sales fell by 24 per cent from almost 1.9 million tonnes in 2022 to 1.4 million tonnes in 2023.

Reamonn McKeever, statistician in the CSO’s environment division, said that in terms of global warming, “2023 was the warmest year on record in the world between 1850 and 2023, as measured by global mean near surface temperature deviations compared with pre-industrial 1850-1899 levels”.

“Emissions in Ireland fell by 3.1 per cent from an average of 56.7 million tonnes in 1990 to 1994 to 55 million tonnes in 2023,” Mr McKeever said.

The CSO figures also show that the proportion of rivers and streams in Ireland with high water quality decreased from 27 per cent between 1987-1990 to 16 per cent from 2020-2023.