{"id":4463,"date":"2018-11-23T13:21:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T13:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/internationaldiplomat.com\/?p=4463"},"modified":"2018-11-23T13:21:25","modified_gmt":"2018-11-23T13:21:25","slug":"greenhouse-gas-levels-in-atmosphere-break-another-record-un-report-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/?p=4463","title":{"rendered":"Greenhouse Gas Levels in Atmosphere Break Another Record, UN Report Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high, according to\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/library.wmo.int\/doc_num.php?explnum_id=5455\"><strong>a report<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0issued on Thursday by the United Nations weather agency, which reveals that there is no sign of a reversal of this trend,<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong> responsible for climate change,<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong> sea level rise,<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong> ocean acidification and extreme weather.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe science is clear. Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gases, climate change will have increasingly destructive and irreversible impacts on life on Earth. The window of opportunity for action is almost closed,\u201d said World Meteorological Organization (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmo.int\/pages\/index_en.html\">WMO<\/a>) Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.<\/p>\n<p>The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin shows that global concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide have been increasing steadily over the past years. In addition, the report notes a resurgence of a potent greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting substance called CFC-11, which is regulated under an international agreement to protect the ozone layer.<\/p>\n<p>The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reports specifically on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, which are what remains in the atmosphere, following a complex process of emissions and absorption.<\/p>\n<p>Since 1990, there has been a 41 per cent increase in the warming effect by the various greenhouse gases on the climate \u2013 known as \u201cradioactive forcing.\u201d CO2 specifically accounts for about 82 per cent of the increase in radioactive forcing over the past decade, according to figures quoted in the WMO report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was three to five million years ago, when the temperature was 2 to 3\u00b0C warmer and sea level was 10 to 20 meters higher than now,\u201d said Mr. Taalas.<\/p>\n<p>The WMO report comes on top of the evidence presented in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ipcc.ch\/report\/sr15\/\">report on global warming<\/a>\u00a0issued in October, which sounded the alarm on the need to reach zero net emissions of CO2 by mid-century, in order to keep temperature increases to below 1.5\u00b0C.<\/p>\n<p>The report showed how keeping temperature increases below 2\u00b0C could reduce the risks for the well-being of the planet and its people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCO2 remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in the oceans for even longer. There is currently no magic wand to remove all the excess CO2 from the atmosphere,\u201d warned WMO Deputy Secretary-General Elena Manaenkova. \u201cEvery fraction of a degree of global warming matters, and so does every part per million of greenhouse gases,\u201d she insisted.<\/p>\n<p>This new report adds yet another building block of scientific evidence to inform decision-making at the upcoming UN climate change conference \u2013 the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/unfccc.int\/katowice\">COP 24<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 planned from 2 to 14 December in Poland. The key objective of this meeting is to adopt an implementation plan for the 2015\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/unfccc.int\/process-and-meetings\/the-paris-agreement\/what-is-the-paris-agreement\">Paris Agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Against the backdrop of the sobering report, Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/NewsEvents\/Pages\/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23914&amp;LangID=E\">sent a letter to all States<\/a>, telling them they have legal obligations under international human rights law to prevent climate change and try to mitigate its effects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHuman rights are under threat from a force which challenges the foundations of all life, as we know it, on this planet we share,\u00a0\u00bb she said, pointing out that the decisions taken CO P24 will govern climate action under the Paris agreement \u00ab\u00a0for the indefinite future,\u00a0\u00bb and said that \u00ab\u00a0the rights of the millions of people [are] threatened by climate change.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>The global averages presented in the WMO Bulletin are based on a rigorous tracking of the changing levels of greenhouse gases as a result of industrialization, use of fossil fuels, unsustainable agricultural practices, increases in land use and deforestation.<\/p>\n<p>The UN calls for urgent actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the national and sub-national levels.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/ane4bf-datap1.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wmocms\/s3fs-public\/styles\/news_carousel_resp_breakpoints_theme_wmo_mobile_1x\/public\/news\/featured_media\/Capture_28.PNG?4sU2XHVyYOpGq.YabafPCPrQt8qXPXNN&amp;itok=5tYYLiT6&amp;timestamp=1542876101\" width=\"366\" height=\"259\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high, according to\u00a0a report\u00a0issued on Thursday by the United Nations weather agency, which reveals that there is no sign of a reversal of this trend, responsible for climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification and extreme weather. \u201cThe science is clear. Without<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/12h71.com\/?p=4463\">+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[539,548],"tags":[847,2596,2909,2968,3092,3165,3350,4022,1929,4518,4761],"class_list":["post-4463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-international-diplomat","tag-climate","tag-co2","tag-emissions","tag-excess","tag-gases","tag-green-house","tag-international-diplomate","tag-paris-agreement","tag-taalas","tag-temperature","tag-wmo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}