2023 was Ireland’s warmest and wettest year on record

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Ireland had its warmest and wettest year on record in 2023, according to the Central Statistics Office.

The CSO said that it is the warmest year in Ireland since data became available in 1961, with an average temperature of 10.96 degrees Celsius.

It was the wettest year since data became available in 1941, with 1,511 millimetres of rain recorded.

Across the world, nine of the 10 warmest years since 1850 have been in the decade since 2014.

Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by 6.8 per cent in 2023, down to 55 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent from 59 million tonnes in 2022.

Ireland had the second-highest emissions of greenhouse gases per capita in the EU-27 in 2022.

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