World ‘sprinting to climate disaster’ as CO2 hits new record

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) also warned that levels of the gases that warm the planet were rising more quickly than in the past.

In a new report the WMO said carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, had increased by 39 per cent since the beginning of the industrial era in 1750 to a new high of 389 parts per million (ppm) last year, largely due to burning fossil fuels, changes in land use and deforestation.

For about 10,000 years before the start of the industrial revolution, ice core records show carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was about 280ppm.

WMO secretary general Michel Jarraud said: “The atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases due to human activities has again reached record levels since pre-industrial time.

“Even if we managed to halt our greenhouse gas emissions today – and this is far from the case – they would continue to linger in the atmosphere for decades to come and so continue to affect the delicate balance of our living planet and our climate.”

Concentrations of carbon dioxide increased by 2.3ppm between 2009 and 2010, more than the average annual rise in the 1990s, which was 1.5ppm, and in the past decade, when CO2 rose by an average of 2ppm a year.

The report revealed that another greenhouse gas, methane, had begun to rise again after stabilising between 1996 and 2006.

Scientists are researching the reasons for the rises, which could include the thawing of the northern permafrost, in which large amounts of CO2 are locked, and increased emissions from tropical wetlands.

Nitrous oxide is also on the rise, mainly as a result of the use of nitrogen fertilisers.

Some other greenhouse gases such as CFCs, which were banned because of the damage they were doing to the ozone layer, are declining but other, powerful greenhouse gases used as substitutes for CFCs are now increasing rapidly, the report said.

The report comes ahead of the UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa, which begin next week, and where little progress towards a new global deal on tackling climate change is expected to be made.

Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said: “It’s a big wake-up call”. He added that he was “frustrated” by lack of action.

Friends of the Earth’s executive director Andy Atkins said: “Over recent years we’ve been sleepwalking towards a climate disaster – it seems we’ve now broken into a sprint.

“The world must wake up to the enormous threat we all face and agree tough international action at next week’s UN climate talks in South Africa.”

WMO co-ordinates the observations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere through a network of stations located in more than 50 countries and is considered to be the authority on the data.

The WMO’s new Greenhouse Gas Bulletin is the seventh in the series, which began in 2004.