Concentrations of climate change gases have reached a new record in 2022, contributing to rising global temperatures and extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned this Wednesday.
For the first time, concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important gas linked to climate change, were 50% higher than in pre-industrial times and continued to rise this year, the WMO said in its annual climate change report. published just weeks before the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), which takes place in Dubai on November 30.
This situation can only be compared with what happened three to five million years ago, when temperatures were two to three degrees higher and sea levels were 10 to 20 meters higher, the UN meteorological agency’s report added.
Concentrations of methane oxide and nitrite, the second and third largest contributors to climate change after carbon dioxide, also increased, with the largest annual increases ever recorded.
Based on current levels of greenhouse gas concentrations, by the end of the century temperatures will rise well above the 1.5 degrees set by the Paris Agreement on climate change as the limit above which the consequences will be catastrophic for humanity.
In addition to rising temperatures, more extreme weather events will also be recorded, such as heat waves, floods, melting glaciers, rising oceans and acidification, said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
“Despite decades of warnings from the scientific community, thousands of written pages and dozens of climate conferences, we continue to move in the wrong direction,” Taalas said at a press conference, as quoted by EFE.
Less than half of carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere, a quarter is absorbed by the oceans and just under 30% by terrestrial ecosystems such as forests, but as long as emissions continue, CO2 will continue to accumulate.
Even if these emissions were immediately cut to zero, levels of this gas, produced by burning fossil fuels and cement production, have a very long lifespan, so high temperatures would persist for decades, according to data provided by the WMO .
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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