Latest update January 17th, 2025 2:43 AM
Greenhouse gas levels hit record high
– Calls being made for international action
A surge in the level of carbon dioxide drove greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere to a record 
high last year, a recent study claims.
Scientists say that carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations grew at the fastest year-to-year rate since reliable global records began in 1984 and have called for international action to combat climate change.
The volume of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, was 396 parts per million (ppm) in 2013 – a 2.9 ppm increase over 2012.
The second most important greenhouse gas, methane, reached a global average of 1824 parts per billion (ppb), increasing at a similar rate as the last five years, while nitrous oxide, the other principal contributor, reached 325.9 ppb, growing at a rate comparable to the average over the past decade.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), greenhouse gas emissions are rising mainly due to industrial growth in China, India and other emerging economy nations.
The rise in CO2 levels is now outpacing fossil fuel use, moreover, which suggests that the planet’s natural ability to absorb emissions of the gas may be slowing.
The biosphere, which includes plants, soil, and the oceans, absorbs around a quarter of man-made CO2 emissions.
If the absorption level drops, more of the planet-warming gas will stay in the atmosphere, where it can remain for centuries.
“We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels,” WMO Secretary General Michel Jarraud told a news conference.
“It may be due to the reduced uptake of CO2 by the biosphere. If that is confirmed, it is of significant concern.”
WMO experts noted that the ocean is getting rapidly more acidic, impairing its ability to absorb carbon dioxide and the rate of ocean acidification is unprecedented at least over the past 300 million years.
According to WMO scientific officer Oksana Tarasova: “The total change of ocean acidity since pre-industrial (times) is 25 percent, and six percent was done within the last 10 years.”
The longer fossil fuel use grows, the harder it will be to reverse the warming effect, so even if human-made carbon emissions fall by 80 percent by 2050, the total warming effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will have barely receded by 2100 the WMO said.
As Jarraud explained: “Past, present and future CO2 emissions, will have a cumulative impact on both global warming and ocean acidification. The laws of physics are non-negotiable. We are running out of time.”
Representatives of about 200 governments will meet at a summit in Paris next year to work out a deal to limit global warming.
The aim is to keep global warming within two Celsius degrees above pre-industrial times, a goal that was set by the UN in 2010.
If this could be achieved, it would “give our planet a chance and our children and grandchildren a future,” said Jarraud.
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