The World Meteorological Organization reported on Monday that greenhouse gas concentrations hit a new record high last year and rose at a faster rate than the annual average for the previous decade, despite a temporary reduction during pandemic-related lockdowns.
In its annual report on heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, the United Nations weather agency also pointed to a worrying new development: Parts of the Amazon rainforest have been moved by carbon “sinks” that suck carbon dioxide out of the air. The source of CO2 due to deforestation and reduced moisture in the area, it said.
According to the report, concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide were above all levels in the pre-industrial era before 1750, when human activities “began to disrupt the Earth’s natural balance.”
came a few days before the release of the report UN climate change conference begins in Glasgow, Scotland. Many environmental activists, policy makers and scientists say that October 31-Nov. 12 event, COP26. is referred to as In short, 2015 marks an important and even significant occasion for concrete commitments to the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement.
“The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin has a clear, scientific message for climate change negotiators at COP26,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Talas said of his agency’s report. “At the current rate of increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, we will see a temperature increase of 1.5 to 2 °C above the pre-industrial levels of the Paris Agreement by the end of this century.”
“We are way off,” said Talas.
The report is based on information gathered by a network that monitors the amount of greenhouse gases that remain in the atmosphere after some amounts have been absorbed by the oceans and biosphere.
“A startling message from our report is that the Amazonian region, which used to be a carbon sink, has become a source of carbon dioxide,” Talas said. “And this is because of deforestation. This is particularly due to changes in the global local climate. We have less humidity and less rainfall.”
Oksana Tarasova, head of WMO’s Atmospheric and Environmental Research Division, said the results were the first to trace the Amazon from sink to source, but added that they were from a specific southeastern part of the Amazon, not the entire rainforest.
According to the WMO report, the global average of carbon dioxide concentrations reached a new high of 413.2 parts per million last year. 2020 growth was higher than the annual average over the previous decade, despite a 5.6% drop in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. COVID-19 ban, the WMO said.
Talas said that levels above 400 parts per million – which were breached in 2015 – have “major negative repercussions for our daily lives and well-being, for the state of our planet, and for the future of our children and grandchildren.” Does matter.”
Human-caused carbon dioxide emissions, mostly resulting from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and gas or cement production, account for about two-thirds of the warming effect on the climate. The WMO said that overall, an economic withdrawal last year due to the pandemic had “no apparent effect on atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and their growth rates, although there was a temporary drop in new emissions.”
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