Photo shows a family along with their cattle and possessions stranded atop small islands formed due to massive floods, Sindh province, Pakistan. Credit: IFAD/EPA/Nadeem Khawer via UN
The atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) keep soaring at “record-breaking speed” and touched new highs in 2016 – a pattern that should alarm bells for all.
A new report has found that rapidly increasing atmospheric levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases could result in unprecedented changes in climate systems, leading to “severe ecological and economic disruptions.”
Some of the known factors behind rapid increase in concentration of greenhouse gases include population growth, intensified agricultural practices, increases in land use and deforestation, industrialization and associated energy use from fossil fuel sources.
The increases in concentrations of greenhouse gases has been going on since the industrial era, beginning in 1750.
Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), while releasing the report Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, said 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,” said Taalas.
He told journalists that it is time for governments to fulfil the pledges they made in Paris in 2015 to take steps to reduce global warming.
“We are not moving in the right direction at all,” he added that “in fact 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 Program.
Oksana Tarasova Chief of Atmospheric Environment Research Division at WMO, explained that last year’s elevated CO2 levels happened because of a combination of human activities and a strong El Niño event.
The climatic phenomenon is associated with warmer-than-average sea temperatures that is believed to be responsible for triggering droughts in tropical regions, as well as unprecedented hurricanes and wildfires elsewhere around the globe, a statement said.
“Atmospheric change occurring 10 to 20 times faster than ever observed in the planet’s history
“However, at 3.3 parts per million, the 2016 increase in carbon dioxide levels was significantly higher than an El Nino-influenced spike in 1998, which was measured at 2.7 ppm.”
This video summarizes how climate change, associated with increased carbon dioxide levels, has affected plant growth.
The WMO report says that before the industrial era, a CO2 change of 10 parts per million took between 100 and 200 years to happen.
“What we are doing now with the atmosphere is 10 to 20 times faster than ever been observed in the history of the planet,” Ms. Tarasova said.
The current CO2 concentrations are now 145 per cent of pre-industrial levels.
But carbon dioxide is not the only gas registering a dangerous trend. The second most important greenhouse gas is methane and its levels rose last year but slightly less than in 2014. The third most warming gas Nitrous oxide is increased slightly less last year than over the last decade.
According to the a statement, the WMO report and Emissions Gap Report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which tracks how governments are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, will likely serve as a scientific base for policy decisions at the UN climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany, beginning Monday 7 November.
