Login With Google
Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N.
Why in news?
- Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2018, rising faster than the average rise of the last decade and cementing increasingly damaging weather patterns, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on 25 Nov.
More in news
- The U.N. agency’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin:
(1) one of a series of studies to be published ahead of a U.N. climate change summit being held in Madrid Dec, is expected to guide discussions there.
(2) It measures the atmospheric concentration of the gases responsible for global warming, rather than emissions.
(3) There is no sign of a slowdown: let alone a decline in greenhouse gases’ concentration in the atmosphere, despite all commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
(4) This continuing long-term trend means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise and disruption to marine and land ecosystems.
(5) Concentration of carbon dioxide, a product of burning fossil fuels that is the biggest contributor to global warming, surged from 405.5 parts per million in 2017 to 407.8 ppm in 2018, exceeding the average rate of increase of 2.06 ppm in 2005-2015.
(6) Irrespective of future policy, CO2 stays in the atmosphere for centuries, locking in warming trends.
(7) It is worth recalling that the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago.
(8) Levels of methane (a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2) and nitrous oxide also hit new records.
(9) The U.N. Environment Programme’s annual “emissions gap” report, due on 26 Nov, assesses whether countries emissions reduction policies are enough.
Sources
The Hindu