Sad record for the year 2022. Global average concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important greenhouse gas, have exceeded pre-industrial values by 50%. They continued to increase this year, according to the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), published two weeks before the most important COP since the Paris Agreement, which will be held on 30 November to December 12 in Dubai. Concentrations of methane (CH4) and levels of nitrous oxide (N2O) also broke records last year, recording their largest annual increase ever.
“Despite decades of warnings from the scientific community, the publication of thousands of pages of reports and the organization of dozens of climate conferences, we continue to move in the wrong direction,” commented the Secretary-General of WMO, Petteri Taalas, in a press release. The goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times (1850-1900), and 1.5 degrees if possible.
Temperature rises well beyond targets
According to a previous UN report, the planet’s average temperature in 2022 was 1.15°C higher than in pre-industrial times. “The current level of greenhouse gas concentrations is leading us towards an increase in temperatures well above the objectives of the Paris agreement by the end of the century,” warned Petteri Taalas.
WMO chief paints a grim picture of the future state of the planet: “Weather conditions will become more extreme: intense heat and heavy precipitation, melting ice, rising sea levels and warming and acidification of the oceans ”, and “we will see a surge in socio-economic and environmental costs”.
Reduce the burning of fossil materials
In 2022, the concentration in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide stood at 417.9 parts per million (ppm), that of methane at 1,923 parts per billion (ppb) and that of nitrous oxide at 335.8 ppb , an increase of 150%, 264% and 124%, respectively, compared to the year 1750. Carbon dioxide, responsible for around 64% of the climate warming effect, comes mainly from the combustion of fossil materials and cement production, indicates the WMO.
As long as emissions continue, CO2 will continue to accumulate in the atmosphere and cause global temperatures to rise. Given the lifetime of CO2, the warming already observed will persist for several decades, even if net emissions are quickly reduced to zero. “There is no magic wand to make excess carbon dioxide disappear from the atmosphere,” noted Petteri Taalas, who considers it “urgent to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels”.
Methane, contributing some 16% to global warming, is a powerful greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for around ten years. Its growth rate last year was slightly lower than the record rate observed between 2020 and 2021 while being well above the average annual growth rate of the previous ten years. As for the rate of increase last year in nitrous oxide, the cause of around 7% of warming, “it has never been so high in modern times”.