In 2021, record amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane and nitrous oxide were measured in the air worldwide. Even higher concentrations of the three greenhouse gases that contribute most to global warming are expected to be observed throughout 2022. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported this on Wednesday in a report.
The increasing amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere makes it increasingly difficult for oceans and terrestrial ecosystems to absorb the greenhouse gas, the organization writes. CO₂, which according to the WMO accounts for two-thirds of global warming, is mainly released when fossil fuels are burned. The WMO points out that part of the Amazon rainforest in South America now emits more CO₂ than it absorbs, while oceans also absorb less CO₂ due to the increasing temperatures on the surface.
“It has major negative consequences for our daily lives and well-being, for the state of our planet and for the future of our children and grandchildren,” WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. According to Taalas, it was three to five million years ago that the Earth last experienced a comparable CO₂ concentration. “But then there were less than 7.8 billion people,” he writes.
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More ambitious goals
According to the WMO, the amount of methane gas in the atmosphere has also risen “dramatically”. It is not clear what caused this increase. “It appears to be a result of both biological and human-induced processes,” the researchers write, adding that global temperatures will continue to rise if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at this rate.
“We are way off course,” Taalas said. “At the current rate of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, by the end of this century we will see a temperature increase that far exceeds the targets agreed in Paris.” In the Paris climate agreement, countries have agreed to do everything they can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming to a maximum of two degrees.
The WMO argues for more ambitious goals. “We need to rethink our industrial, energy and transport systems and our whole way of life. The necessary changes are economically affordable and technically possible,” says Taalas. “There is no time to lose.”