Greenhouse gases at record high, warns UN

GENEVA: Greenhouse gases rose to a symbolic milestone last year, taking climate change into a new phase which could last generations even if governments act to curb man-made global warming, the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said yesterday.

Globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main manmade greenhouse gas, reached 400.0 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere for the first time on record and were 44% above levels before the Industrial Revolution, it said.

The relentless rise contrasts with accords by almost 200 governments to start reining in emissions, led by the Paris Agreement last year to phase out fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy in the second half of the century. “The year 2015 marks a new era of climate change with record high greenhouse gas concentrations,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas. “The key issue is to go from political will to concrete action. So far we haven’t seen a major change in behaviour.”

An observatory in Hawaii, the main measuring station with records since 1958, “predicts that carbon dioxide concentrations will stay above 400 ppm for the whole 2016 and not dip below that level for many generations”, the WMO said.

Carbon dioxide levels will continue rising unless the world stops burning fossil fuels and starts planting trees, said WMO’s atmospheric environment research chief Oksana Tarasova. “The technology is there. It’s just human will. If we want we can do it,” she said, recalling Europe’s successful efforts to combat acid rain by tackling sulphur and nitrogen emissions. “You can bend the curve. If you take action and stick to the treaty’s commitments.”

Taalas said consequences of climate change, such as weather-related disasters, were set to continue even if emissions start to come down.

“We could see improvement in the 2060s if we start now,” he said.

Man-made warming is blamed for causing heatwaves, downpours, droughts and rising ocean levels.

An El Niño event was probably driving global rises in 2016. El Niño is linked with more droughts and wildfires, meaning less vegetation to absorb carbon dioxide. – Reuters