The earth has reached a worrying new milestone.
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The earth has reached a worrying new milestone. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have reached the symbolic threshold of 400 parts per million on average across the whole of 2015, and may not dip below that level for many generations.
The World Meteorological Organisation, which released the findings, is sounding the alarm, saying that without tackling carbon dioxide emissions, the promises made in Paris to reduce global warming won’t be kept.
“So far we haven’t done enough to reach this 1.5 degree target, which was the lowest level defined in the Paris agreement, and we are also going to reach this 2 degree target very soon if we are not going to start a rapid change in our emission patterns,” explained Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of World Meteorological Organisation.
The spike is in part attributed to the El Nino weather event, however, Taalas added that while the El Nino effect has disappeared, human impact on climate change has not.
The leaders of around 200 nations which signed the Paris Accord are expected to meet in Morocco in November to discuss the next steps to combat global warming.