Greenhouse concentration hits record highs, UN reports

November 16, 2023

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Smoke rises from the Feyzin Total refinery chimneys, outside Lyon, central France, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Weeks before leaders gather for a U.N. summit in Glasgow, recent scientific reports paint a dire picture of the international effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and the U.N. warned that more needs to be done if the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord are to remain within reach. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

The abundance of climate-heating gases in the atmosphere reached record highs in 2022, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported.

The concentration of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, is now 50% higher than before the start of the Industrial Revolution, while levels of methane and nitrous oxide also grew, the report adds.

The WMO report found that the heating effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose by 50% between 1990 and 2022, with CO2 accounting for about 80% of this increase.

The UN organization warns that the current trends will be accompanied by more extreme weather, and that “socioeconomic and environmental costs will soar”, urging all nations to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels “as a matter of urgency.”