BFF-56 Greenhouse gas levels in atmosphere hit new high: UN

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UN-CLIMATE-WEATHER-WARMING

Greenhouse gas levels in atmosphere hit new high: UN

GENEVA, Nov 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The levels of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, have hit a new record high,
the UN said Thursday, warning that the time to act was running out.

Ahead of the COP 24 climate summit in Poland next month, top United Nations
officials are again trying to raise the pressure on governments to meet the
pledge of limiting warming to the less than two degrees Celsius, enshrined in
the 2015 Paris accord.

“Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gases, climate change will
have increasingly destructive and irreversible impacts on life on Earth,” the
head of the World Meteorological Organization Petteri Taalas said in a
statement.

“The window of opportunity for action is almost closed.”

In an open letter to all states ahead of COP24, UN rights chief Michelle
Bachelet warned of cataclysmic consequences if the world does not reverse
course.

“Entire nations, ecosystems, peoples and ways of life could simply cease to
exist,” she said, citing evidence that nations are not on track to meet the
commitments made in Paris.

US President Donald Trump, who pulled his government out of the Paris
agreement, again on Thursday appeared to cast doubt on climate science.

“Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS – Whatever
happened to Global Warming?” he said in a tweet.

Asked to respond to Trump, deputy WMO chief Elena Manaenkova told reporters
that the science underpinning global warming was “unequivocal,” without
challenging the US leader directly.

– 5 million years –

The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, the UN weather agency’s annual flagship
report, tracks the content of dangerous gases in the atmosphere since 1750.

This year’s report, which covers data for 2017, puts the concentration of
CO2 in the atmosphere at 405.5 parts per million (ppm).

That is up from 403.3 ppm in 2016 and 400.1 ppm in 2015.

“The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was
3-5 million years ago, when the temperature was 2-3oC warmer,” Taalas said.

Researchers have made reliable estimates of C02 concentrations rates going
back 800,000 years using air bubbles preserved in ice in Greenland and
Antarctica.

But by studying fossilised material the WMO also has rough CO2 estimates
going back up to five million years.

In addition to CO2, the UN agency also highlighted rising levels of
methane, nitrous oxide and another powerful ozone depleting gas known as CFC-
11.

– ‘No magic wand’ –

Emissions are the main factor that determines the amount of greenhouse gas
levels, but concentration rates are a measure of what remains after a series
of complex interactions between atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere,
cryosphere and the oceans.

Roughly 25 percent of all emissions are currently absorbed by the oceans
and biosphere — a term that accounts for all ecosystems on Earth. The
lithosphere is the solid, outer part of the Earth, while the cyrosphere
covers that part of the world covered by frozen water.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that in
order to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, net CO2 emissions must be at
net zero, meaning the amount being pumped into the atmosphere must equal the
amount being removed, either though natural absorbtion or technological
innovation.

WMO’s deputy chief, Elena Manaenkova, noted that CO2 remains in the
atmosphere and oceans for hundreds of years.

“There is currently no magic wand to remove all the excess CO2 from the
atmosphere,” she said.

“Every fraction of a degree of global warming matters, and so does every
part per million of greenhouse gases,” she said.

According to the UN, 17 of the 18 hottest years on record have occurred
since 2001, while the cost of climate-related disasters in 2017 topped $500
billion (439 billion euros).

BSS/AFP/BZC/1930HRS