The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record level last year, despite a temporary decline in global emissions during the Corona epidemic. Moreover, there is a serious lack of international efforts to slow global warming. With this warning, the United Nations Meteorological Agency in the area new reportLess than a week before the start of the Climate Change Summit in Glasgow.

The concentration in 2020 increased more than the annual average in the years 2000 to 2010. If this increase continues at the current pace, this means that the average temperature increase on Earth will be much higher than the targets of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Greenhouse is the main cause of high temperature.

The Paris Agreement stipulates that this increase should not exceed two degrees, preferably 1.5 degrees. If nothing happens, the average increase by the end of the century will be 2.7 degrees, the Meteorological Agency predicts.

An alarming new development

“We are far behind,” said WMO Secretary-General Taalas. “We need to overhaul all of our industry, energy and transportation systems and completely reshape our way of life.”

According to him, more ambitious climate goals are needed. The emission of carbon dioxide, the main gas of global warming, results mainly from the use of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, and, for example, the production of cement.

The head of the Glasgow Climate Summit, Alok Sharma, notes that progress has been made since the Paris Agreement: then it still looks like the global temperature will rise by an average of 4 degrees.

The WMO also points to a worrying new development: a portion of the tropical rainforest in the southwest of the Amazon is no longer absorbing carbon dioxide, as it was until recently, but has instead become a source of emissions. This is due to deforestation and low humidity there, which means it rains much less than before.

Reporter Rollin Creighton traveled to Greenland, where the ice sheet is melting faster than ever due to climate change: