Greenhouse gas emissions hit new high in 2023, UN weather agency warns

The call comes as world leaders prepare to gather for UN Climate Change Conference in Baku next month, amid repeated dire warnings from the UN about the price to be paid for ignoring the existential crisis Secretary General Antonio Guterres and others.

Echoing the long-standing calls of the UN chief, WMO Deputy Secretary General Co Barrett told reporters that carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the three main greenhouse gases, along with methane and nitrous oxide. is now accumulating in the atmosphere “faster than at any other time in human history.” Because of CO2’s extremely long existence in the atmosphere, “we’re looking at rising temperatures for many, many years to come,” she added.

The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin 2024 is a stark scientific reminder that rising CO2 levels must be slowed. According to the WMO Global Atmospheric Observing Network, in 2004 the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 377.1 parts per million (ppm), and in 2023 it reached 420 ppm. “That’s an increase of 42.9 parts per million, or 11.4 per cent, in just 20 years,” Ms Barrett explained.

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