The World Meteorological Organisation has revealed that Greenhouse gases have reached new record high, which could mean extreme water conditions, rise in temperature, rise in sea level and impact on marine/land life.8
In the WMO Greenhouse gas Bulletin, it has been pointed out that the concentration of carbon dioxide has reached 407.8 parts per million in 2018, which was up from 405.5 parts per million the previous year. It s said that the increase from 2017 to 2018 was close to that of the carbon dioxide levels from 2016 to 2017 and was above average over the last decade.
The bulletin also said that the concentration of methane and nitrous oxide also showed an increase by higher amounts than the past decade. The WMO has said that there has been an increase of 43 per cent in radiative forcing ( warming effect on climate) because of green house gases. Of this Carbon dioxide accounted for about 80 per cent.
WMO general secretary Petteri Taalas has said that there was no sign of any slowdown in Green House emissions despite commitments were made under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. He said that there was a need to translate the commitments into action for the future generations.
Taalas said that the Earth experienced a similar concentration of carbon dioxide was about 3-5 million years ago and that time the temperature was 2-3 degree centigrade warmer and sea level was 10-20 metres higher than today.
UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Anderson has said that the UNEP’s Emission Gap report and Green House Bulletin findings point out that the world must take concrete steps on emissions or face the consequences of climate change.
