Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere soared by a record amount to new highs in 2024, committing the planet to more long-term temperature increase, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere soared by a record amount to new highs in 2024, committing the planet to more long-term temperature increase, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin said continued emissions of CO2 from human activities and an upsurge from wildfires were responsible, as well as reduced CO2 absorption by “sinks” such as land ecosystems and the ocean—in what threatens to be a vicious climate cycle.
WMO released the annual greenhouse gas bulletin to provide authoritative scientific information for the UN Climate Change conference in November. The COP 30 meeting in Belém, Brazil, will seek to ramp up climate action.
“Sustaining and expanding greenhouse gas monitoring are critical to support such efforts”, said Oksana Tarasova, coordinator of the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, which is one of WMO’s flagship scientific reports and is now in its 21st issue.
When the bulletin was first published in 2004, the annual average level of CO2 measured by WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch network of monitoring stations was 377.
