Greenhouse gas levels reach new record high: UN

[GENEVA] Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere reached record levels last year, the United Nations (UN) said Monday, in a stark warning ahead of the COP26 summit about worsening global warming.

The UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that continued rising greenhouse gas emissions would result in more extreme weather and wide-ranging impacts on the environment, the economy and humanity.

The WMO said the economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a temporary decline in new emissions, but had no discernible impact on the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and their growth rates.

The organisation's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin said the annual rate of increase last year was above the yearly average between 2011 and 2020 - and the trend continued in 2021. The WMO said that as long as emissions continue, global temperatures will continue to rise.

And given the long life of carbon dioxide (CO2), the temperature level already observed will persist for several decades even if emissions are rapidly reduced to net zero.

The UN Climate Change Conference COP26 is being held in the Scottish city Glasgow from Oct 31 to Nov 12.

WMO chief Petteri Taalas said: "The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin contains a stark, scientific message for climate change negotiators at COP26.

"At the current rate of increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, we will see a temperature increase by the end of this century far in excess of the Paris Agreement targets of 1.5 to 1 deg C above pre-industrial levels. We are way off track."

Taalas said that if the world kept using fossil fuels in an unlimited way, the planet could be about 4 deg C warmer by 2100. Limiting warming to 1.5 deg C was still possible through mitigation efforts.

AFP