Greenhouse gases in atmosphere hit record high last year, new UN report shows

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Rebecca Speare-Cole25 November 2019

Greenhouse gases in the world's atmosphere hit a new record high in 2018, the World Meteorological Organization has announced.

The level of greenhouse gases rose faster than the average rise of the last decade, causing increasingly damaging weather patterns.

The release on Monday of the UN agency's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin comes ahead of a UN climate change summit being held in Madrid next week, where it will guide discussions.

The report measures the atmospheric concentration of the gases responsible for global warming, rather than emissions.

A view of the City of London skyline as seen through a layer of smog.
PA

"It is worth recalling that the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

"There is no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline, in greenhouse gases' concentration in the atmosphere - despite all the commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change."

WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas shows the latest WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin
AFP via Getty Images

"This continuing long-term trend means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise and disruption to marine and land ecosystems."

UN Climate Change Conference 2018

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The concentration of carbon dioxide is the biggest contributor to global warming.

It surged from 405.5 parts per million in 2017 to 407.8 ppm in 2018, compared to the 2.06 ppm increase in 2005-2015, the WMO report said.

Irrespective of future policy, carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for centuries, locking in warming trends.

Levels of methane - a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 - and nitrous oxide also hit new records, the report said.

The UN Environment Programme's annual "emissions gap" report, due on Tuesday, assesses whether countries' emission reduction policies are enough.

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