'No end in sight' for record rise in greenhouse gases
The current level of greenhouse gas concentrations puts the world on the pathway of an increase in temperatures well above the Paris Agreement targets by the end of this century, it has been warned.
Greenhouse gas levels across the world reached record highs once again last year, with “no end in sight” to their continuous rise, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
The WMO warned that average carbon dioxide concentrations in 2022 across the globe were a full 50% above the pre-industrial era for the first time.
They have continued to grow in 2023, it said.
Methane concentrations also grew, while levels of nitrous oxide, the third main gas, saw the highest year-on-year increase on record from 2021 to 2022, according to the WMO’s , which is published to inform the UN climate change summit Cop28 in Dubai later this month.
Time is running out for the Paris Agreement limit, the WMO warned.
According to the landmark Paris Agreement of 2015, a 1.5C rise in temperatures was set as the limit globally, compared to 1850-1900, in order to stave off the worst fallout from climate change.
The Paris Agreement has led to a number of deals to reduce emissions being struck between governments across the world at Cop events in the years since, but they have struggled to turn such agreements into meaningful action.
WMO secretary general Prof Petteri Taalas said: “Despite decades of warnings from the scientific community, thousands of pages of reports and dozens of climate conferences, we are still heading in the wrong direction.”
The current level of greenhouse gas concentrations puts the world on the pathway of an increase in temperatures well above the Paris Agreement targets by the end of this century, he warned.
“This will be accompanied by more extreme weather, including intense heat and rainfall, ice melt, sea-level rise, and ocean heat and acidification.
"The socioeconomic and environmental costs will soar. We must reduce the consumption of fossil fuels as a matter of urgency,” he said.
The WMO said that the last time the planet experienced a comparable concentration of carbon dioxide was between three and five million years ago, when the temperature was 2C to 3C warmer and sea level was 10m to 20m higher than now.
Carbon dioxide is the single most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, accounting for approximately 64% of the warming effect on the climate, mainly because of fossil fuel combustion and cement production, according to the WMO.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas which remains in the atmosphere for about a decade and accounts for about 16% of the warming effect of long-lived greenhouse gases.
Cop28 is the latest iteration in the UN climate change summit, where government leaders and stakeholders from around the world come together to form a consensus on how to tackle the burgeoning climate crisis.
This year’s event in Dubai has been criticised by environmental groups, including Irish NGOs.
Cop28 in Dubai will be headed up by Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber as its president, who also serves as the UAE’s climate envoy.
He is also head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the 12th-largest oil-producing firm in the world.
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