New York - Dubai: Europe and the Arabs
The World Meteorological Organization has warned that concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere once again reached a new record high last year, while there is no end in sight to this upward trend. According to what was stated in the daily news bulletin issued by the United Nations, a copy of which we received this morning
A report issued by the organization ahead of the twenty-eighth United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) showed that the average global concentrations in 2022 of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, were 50 percent higher than pre-industrial revolution levels for the first time. He pointed out that these concentrations will continue to increase in 2023.
Although the rate of increase in carbon dioxide concentration was slightly lower than the previous year, the report entitled "Greenhouse Gas Bulletin" said that this was likely due to short-term natural changes in the carbon cycle, indicating that new emissions as a result of industrial changes continued to rise. .
Concentrations of other major greenhouse gases, methane and nitrous oxide, also continued to grow, according to the report, with concentrations of nitrous oxide — an ozone-depleting chemical — seeing their highest annual increase on record.
In this context, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, said: “Despite decades of warnings from the scientific community, thousands of pages of reports, and dozens of climate conferences, we are still moving in the wrong direction.”
He stressed that the current level of greenhouse gas concentrations puts the world on a path to increase temperatures much higher than the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement by the end of this century.
He added: “This will be accompanied by more extreme weather (patterns), including extreme heat, rain, melting ice, sea level rise, and ocean heating and acidification. The social, economic and environmental costs will also rise. We must reduce fossil fuel consumption out of necessity.”
Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, accounting for about 64 percent of the warming effect on climate, and its emission is mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels and cement production. Given its long lifespan, the World Meteorological Organization has confirmed that the temperature level already observed will persist for several decades, even if emissions are quickly reduced to net zero.
It is noteworthy that the last time the planet witnessed a similar concentration of carbon dioxide was three to five million years ago, when the temperature was two to three degrees Celsius higher, and sea level was 10 to 20 meters higher than it is now. .