The analysis, focused on data from the year 2021, points to several worrying conclusions. Last year, the world recorded the highest ever observed levels of methane. In the more than 40 years that the presence of this gas in the atmosphere has been monitored such a high concentration has never been reached. Experts say that, in part, this could be due to natural processes but, beyond this, there is no doubt that human activity has been largely to blame. Above all because, paradoxically, just last year during the glasgow summit One of the largest pacts to date was presented to reduce the emissions of this gas.
The report also warns of a increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Between 2020 and 2021, when the road to recovery from covid-19 was just beginning, this gas increased by rate higher than that observed during the last decadea. It is confirmed, once again, that after the break caused by the coronavirus pandemic there has been a significant rise in emissions of this gas. Experts attribute this phenomenon to two main factors: burning of fossil fuels (related, for example, to the circulation of vehicles) and to the production of cement in the construction sector.
There are still no definitive data on the emissions this year but, according to the preliminary figures collected by observatories around the world, everything points to in 2022 this trend will continue to rise. Experts, in fact, fear that if action is not taken immediately it is very likely that this year the umpteenth record will be broken again. “The continued rise in greenhouse gases, including record methane concentrations, is a warning that we are going in the wrong direction“, argues Petteri Taalas, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, during the official presentation of this analysis.
A century of polluted atmosphere
The world has never had such a concentration of greenhouse gases as it does now. In 2021, according to this latest assessment led by a network of scientists from around the world, the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 415.7 parts per million, that of methane stood in 1908 parts per million and the nitrogen oxides it was at 334.5 parts per million. The records point to a average increase of 149%, 262% and 124% in the presence of these gases compared to the pre-industrial era. And this increase, once again, is directly related to human activity.
The high concentration of these gases in the atmosphere is causing several ‘cascading damage’ ranging from the increase in extreme weather events to the advancement of global warming. If it continues like this, with the current levels of emissions, it is estimated that the planet’s thermometers will rise a average of 2.5 degrees in the coming decades (This, in countries like Spain, could translate into an increase of between four and seven degrees on average by the end of the century). The scientific community has warned in innumerable reports that the unique ‘safe threshold’ for the health of the planet (and its inhabitants) is to stop global warming below 1.5 degrees on average.
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“This information underlines, once again, the enormous challenge and the vital need to cut greenhouse gas emissions to curb the global rise in temperatures,” Taalas points out in a message especially addressed to the leaders who, meeting in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh between November 6 and 18, will return to discuss how to turn off the tap on emissions of these gases that are warming the planet. “Need transform our industrial, energy system and in general, our life style. We have the technical and economic capacity to do so. We just need to start now. Time is running out”, the scientists highlight in the presentation of this latest report.
The World Meteorological Organization, for its part, also announces that it is preparing an international mechanism to monitor greenhouse gas emissions. This tool, announced last year during the Glasgow summit, aims to become an information exchange system for the scientific community. Initially, this mechanism will only be used to improve analyzes and predictions about the concentration of these gases. It will not be used to penalize the largest emitters on the planet (or rather, those who are emitting above what was agreed) but, at least, it will help to know who they are.