The year's best stories

This year, as global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels reached a new high, the world fell further behind on its emissions targets. As 2023 drew to a close, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that it was set to be the world’s hottest year on record. A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in March found that the world may breach a critical threshold for warming—1.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above temperatures in preindustrial times—by the early 2030s. As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, holding warming to 1.5 degrees will require a “quantum leap in climate action.”

This year, as global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels reached a new high, the world fell further behind on its emissions targets. As 2023 drew to a close, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that it was set to be the world’s hottest year on record. A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in March found that the world may breach a critical threshold for warming—1.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above temperatures in preindustrial times—by the early 2030s. As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, holding warming to 1.5 degrees will require a “quantum leap in climate action.”

Despite international calls to phase out oil, coal, and gas, China and the United States—the world’s two largest emitters—approved new fossil fuel projects this year. In 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to “strictly control” coal, but Beijing has issued permits for hundreds of new coal power plants in the past two years amid rising concerns over electricity shortages. And in the United States, the Biden administration approved new oil and gas projects this year across the country, including the Willow project, a controversial oil drilling venture in Alaska.

As emissions keep rising, a distinct techno-optimism has defined many international climate efforts. Worldwide, the public and private sectors........

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