The concentration of greenhouse gases once again broke all records in 2023, and in the last two decades the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main one, increased by 11.4%, according to the Organization’s analysis World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which assured that this “condemns the planet to many years of rising temperatures.”
According to the annual report on the concentration of these gases, which the UN agency publishes two weeks before the Climate Summit begins in Baku, carbon dioxide levels of 420 parts per million were reached last year, which represents a 151% increase compared to pre-industrial levels (before 1750).
Additionally, 1,934 parts per billion of methane and 336.9 parts per billion of nitrous oxide were measured, the other two gases causing global warming, with levels that represent increases compared to the pre-industrial era of 265% and 125%. respectively.
“Another year, another record. This should set off all the alarm bells among decision-makers.“There is no doubt that we are very far from meeting the objective of the Paris Agreement of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees with respect to pre-industrial levels,” the WMO Secretary General, Argentina, stressed when presenting the data. Celeste Saul.
Carbon dioxide, which is estimated to contribute 64% to global warming and comes mainly from the burning of fossil fuels and cement production, increased in 2023 to 2.3 parts per million compared to 2022, a higher figure to the previous year although lower than the three previous years.
The influence of forest fires
This increase was influenced by the transition from the La Niña phenomenon to that of El Niño (the latter linked to an increase in temperatures in the Pacific Ocean) and the disastrous fire season, whose CO2 emissions were 16% higher than average from previous years, with large forest fires in countries such as Canada or Australia.
Methane and nitrous oxide, generated by natural but also anthropogenic causes such as agriculture, livestock or biomass burning, experienced lower concentration increases than in 2022, according to the WMO report.
He reiterated that the last time a carbon dioxide concentration comparable to the current one was recorded on Earth was between three and five million years ago, when the temperature was between 2 and 3 degrees warmer and sea level between 10 and 20 centimeters higher than the current one.
The United Nations meteorological agency warns that even if emissions were reduced rapidly to reach a net zero level (that is, they were alleviated by absorption phenomena such as those exerted by forests) it would take decades to reduce current temperature levels, for example. the long permanence of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The situation could get worse
The WMO also warns of the risk that the increase in the concentrations of the gases that cause global warming will become increasingly intense.
“Forest fires could release more carbon emissions into the atmosphere, while rising ocean temperatures could reduce their capacity to absorb CO2, so more of this gas could accumulate in the atmosphere and accelerate global warming.” “, noted in this sense the deputy secretary general of the WMO, Ko Barrett.
Just under half of carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere, the ocean absorbs approximately a quarter, and terrestrial ecosystems around 30%, although these percentages vary due to phenomena such as La Niña or El Niño.
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