Carbon dioxide levels surge in 2016

MANILA, Philippines — Levels of carbon dioxide (C02) surged at “record-breaking speed” to new highs in 2016, the United Nations weather agency announced.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) secretary-general Petteri Taalas issued the warning in Geneva at the launch of the organization’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

The WMO report indicates that carbon dioxide concentrations reached 403.3 parts per million in 2016, up from 400 ppm in 2015.

“We have never seen such big growth in one year as we have been seeing last year in carbon dioxide concentration,” Taalas said.

He said it is time for governments to fulfill the pledges they made in Paris in 2015 to take steps to reduce global warming.

Taalas said the new figures reveal “we are not moving in the right direction at all.”

“We are actually moving in the wrong direction when we think about the implementation of the Paris Agreement and this all demonstrates that there is some urgent need to raise the ambition level of climate mitigation, if we are serious with this 1.5 to 2C target of Paris Agreement.”

The report’s findings are based on observations taken around the globe by the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch Programme. It found that rapidly increasing atmospheric levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases have the potential to initiate unprecedented changes in climate systems, leading to “severe ecological and economic disruptions.”

Population growth, intensified agricultural practices, increases in land use and deforestation, industrialization and associated energy use from fossil fuel sources have all contributed to increases in concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the industrial era, beginning in 1750.

Oksana Tarasova, chief of Atmospheric Environment Research Division at WMO, explained that last year’s elevated CO2 levels were caused by a combination of human activities and a strong El Niño event.