The three main greenhouse gases in the air all reached record highs last year. These are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide. “We’re going in the wrong direction.”
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) – coming to this conclusion – calls it “yet another ominous warning of climate change.” The WMO sees a ‘dramatic’ increase in the methane concentration in the air. This increase was greater than at any time in nearly forty years of measurements.
It is unclear what is behind the huge increase. “It appears to be a result of both biological and man-made processes.” An example of a biological process is when swamps or rice fields become warmer. Then the organic material breaks down faster and this can lead to methane emissions.
‘We’re going in the wrong direction’
The CO2 content also increased more than normal. The increase is expected to continue worldwide in 2022. WMO chief Petteri Taalas emphasizes the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ‘and prevent the global temperature from rising further in the future’. According to him, the continued rise shows ‘we are going in the wrong direction’. “Time is running out,” Taalas said.
Need more ambition
According to the WMO, more ambitious goals are needed to comply with the agreements in the Paris Climate Agreement. In it, world leaders agreed to make efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that the earth warms no more than 2 degrees – and preferably no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius – compared to the pre-industrial era. On average, the temperature on Earth is now 1.1 degrees higher than before industrialization.
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The WMO is a United Nations organization that specializes in weather, climate and water. As long as greenhouse gas emissions continue, global temperatures will continue to rise, the WMO emphasizes. Even if emissions fall immediately, CO2 will remain in the atmosphere for years longer.
Climate summit in November
The United Nations Environment Agency (UNEP) will release a separate report on Thursday. It assesses current and estimated future greenhouse gas emissions. The environmental agency calculates how much the earth will warm up with the promises made by countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Several studies are being published in the run-up to the UN climate summit COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt.
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