Methane levels in the global atmosphere hit record highs last year as the main heat-trapping greenhouse gas reached new highs, UN experts said.
Three major greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – all reached record high concentrations in the atmosphere in 2021, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) annual bulletin, suggesting the world is struggling with climate change issues. “Going in the wrong direction”.
Levels of the potent greenhouse gas methane have risen the most year-over-year since measurements began nearly 40 years ago.
cement
The World Meteorological Organization said the cause of the methane surge was unclear, but it appeared to be the result of biological and human processes.
Methane is a potent but short-lived greenhouse gas from a wide range of sources, including natural wetlands, agriculture and fossil fuel production.
The increase in methane levels in recent years is thought to have come mainly from biological sources such as wetlands or rice fields, the report said.
But it’s unclear whether this is partly due to increased emissions from wetlands as a result of global warming accelerating the natural decomposition process that produces methane.
From 2020 to 2021, levels of carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) will increase above the average annual growth rate of the past decade, with concentrations reaching 415.7 parts per million (ppm) last year, mainly due to fossil fuel and cement production.
temperature
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by nearly 50% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when it was about 280 ppm.
Between 2011 and 2020, nearly half (48 percent) of total carbon emissions from human activities were formed in the atmosphere, 26 percent were absorbed by the ocean, and 29 percent were absorbed by terrestrial ecosystems such as forests, the report said.
But experts worry that the ability of natural land areas and oceans to act as “sinks” to absorb carbon dioxide will become less effective, reducing their ability to act as a buffer against greater temperature increases.
Overall, the warming effect of greenhouse gases rose by nearly 50 percent between 1990 and 2021.
World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petri Taalas said the communiqué “re-emphasizes the enormous challenge — and the crucial need” — of urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent further increases in global temperatures in the future.
influences
“Continued rises in concentrations of key endothermic gases, including a record acceleration in methane levels, suggest that we are heading in the wrong direction,” he said.
Professor Taalas added: “There are cost-effective strategies to address methane emissions, especially from the fossil fuel sector, and we should implement them without delay.
“However, methane has a relatively short lifespan of less than 10 years, so its impact on climate is reversible.
“As a first and most urgent priority, we must cut carbon dioxide emissions, a major driver of climate change and related extreme weather, which will affect thousands of years through polar ice loss, ocean warming and sea level rise. climate.”
He said changes to industry, energy and transport systems and lifestyles were necessary, which he said was economically affordable and technically feasible, warning that “time is running out”.
The report is one of several studies on the state of the world’s climate to be released ahead of the UN’s Cop27 climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, where countries will face pressure to act to reduce emissions and support poorer countries in tackling climate change. With the impact of global warming.
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