Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere reached record levels last year, the United Nations said Monday in a stark warning ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) about worsening global warming.
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The UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that continued rising greenhouse gas emissions would result in more extreme weather and wide-ranging impacts on the environment, the economy, and humanity.
Economic slowdown caused by Covid triggered a temporary decline in new emissions but had no discernible impact on the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and their growth rates, the WMO said.
The organization's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin said the annual rate of increase last year was above the yearly average between 2011 and 2020 - and the trend continued in 2021.
As long as emissions continue, the WMO added, global temperatures will continue to rise. Given the long life of carbon dioxide, the temperature level already observed will also persist for several decades even if emissions are rapidly reduced to net-zero.
The COP26 is being held in the Scottish city of Glasgow from October 31 to November 12. "The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin contains a stark, scientific message for climate change negotiators at COP26," said WMO chief Petteri Taalas. "At the current rate of increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, we will see a temperature increase by the end of this century far in excess of the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels."
"We are way off track," the chief added. Taalas said that if the world kept using fossil fuels in an unlimited way, the planet could be about 4 C warmer by 2100 – but limiting warming to 1.5 C was still possible through mitigation effects.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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