Geneva — GENEVA (AP) — Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached new highs last year, and the heat trapped by such greenhouse gases is “supercharging” Earth’s climate and causing more extreme weather, the United Nations weather agency said Wednesday.
Carbon dioxide growth rates have now tripled since the 1960s, and anthropogenic emissions and more forest fires have helped fuel a “vicious climate cycle,” the World Meteorological Organization said in its latest bulletin on global greenhouse gases.
The increase in global average carbon dioxide concentration from 2023 to 2024 reached the highest annual level ever within one year since measurements began in 1957, the Geneva-based agency said.
“The heat trapped by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is supercharging our climate and driving more extreme weather,” Coe Barrett, Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said in a statement. “Reducing emissions is therefore essential not only for our climate but also for our economic security and the well-being of our society.”
The World Meteorological Organization said the increase in 2024 puts the planet on track for further warming in the long term. She noted that concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide — other greenhouse gases caused by human activity — have also reached record levels.