November 23rd local time, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization issued the latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, pointing out that the carbon dioxide content increased rapidly again in 2019, and the global annual average exceeded the important threshold of 410 parts per million. In 2020, this upward trend will continue.
Since 1990, the total radiation force (impact on climate warming) of long-standing greenhouse gases has increased by 45%, of which carbon dioxide accounts for four-fifths.
Tarras, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said that carbon dioxide has existed in the atmosphere for centuries and stays in the ocean for a longer time.
The comparable carbon dioxide concentration experienced on the earth was 3 to 5 million years ago, when the temperature increased by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius and the sea level was 10 to 20 meters higher than now, but there were no 3.7 billion inhabitants on the earth at that time.
Taras pointed out that global carbon dioxide concentrations exceeded 400 parts per million in 2015 and 410 parts per million just four years later, a rate of growth unprecedented in history.
Taras also stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic does not solve climate change, but also provides us with a platform for us to take more lasting and ambitious climate action.
Reduce emissions to zero through a comprehensive transformation of industrial, energy and transportation systems. The improvements needed are economically affordable, technically achievable, and will only have a small impact on our daily lives. An increasing number of countries and enterprises are committed to carbon neutrality, which is welcome. “There is no time to waste,” Taras said.
The global carbon plan, an international non-governmental organization, estimates that global daily carbon dioxide emissions may be reduced by 17% during the epidemic. Due to uncertainties about the duration and extent of the lockdown measures, it is not possible to accurately predict the total emission reductions for the whole year of 2020.
Preliminary estimates indicate that global annual emissions are reduced by 4.2% to 7.5%, but emission reductions at this scale cannot reduce carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide levels will continue to increase, although the speed is slightly lower.
The latest GHG Bulletin draws conclusions based on global averages for 2019. According to monitoring stations, carbon dioxide levels are on a continuous upward trend in 2020.
