The recent announcement by the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) that global carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have passed a symbolic threshold assumes special significance in the light of the next major United Nations climate change summit meeting on November 7 in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Global average CO2 levels are above 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in three million years, and are 144% of pre-industrial levels of 278 ppm, the UN weather agency announced in the annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
The global average concentration of CO2 first reached 400 ppm in 2015, according to WMO. The amount of atmospheric CO2 previously reached this level during certain months of the year, and in certain parts of the world. But 2015 marked the first time on record that the global average surpassed this threshold for a whole year. This CO2 level, then, surged in 2016, bolstered by the powerful El Nino event, which also triggered droughts in tropical forests and wildfires.
The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii – the world’s premier site for measuring CO2 has predicted “that carbon dioxide concentrations will stay above 400 ppm for the whole of 2016 and not dip below that level for many generations.”
The WMO’s announcement has imparted a fresh urgency to a process that has already seen significant strides in the past year. But it is also a reminder that the progress among nations needs to continue apace if the global thermostat is going to be reset, say climate scientists.
In the previous century, by some accounts world leaders were slow to agree on actions to combat environmental threats and climate change. The Montreal Protocol that phased out chlorofluorocarbons, for instance, was not signed until 14 years after scientists first linked the chemical to holes in the ozone layer.
The pace at which world nations have acted may have accelerated with the Paris climate agreement in 2015, followed by the Kigali deal when nearly 200 nations signed earlier this month to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, another greenhouse gas.
More than 170 nations came together in 2015 to agree to hold the global temperature rise to no more than 2C (3.6 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels. Under the Paris deal, nations agreed to implement national laws to curb global temperatures. The agreement is scheduled to enter into force on November 4, after dozens of countries have ratified it, formally binding themselves to its terms.
In Marrakesh, diplomats hope to create an independent body that will put into force the Paris deal. They plan to create an independent body to monitor, verify, and publicise countries’ pollution levels, according to The New York Times. As pointed out by The Christian Science Monitor, diplomats will seek to hammer out how developed countries will pay for poorer countries to adapt to climate change and develop new clean energy technologies. Under the Paris deal, rich countries voluntarily pledged to spend $100 billion annually by 2020 to help poorer countries.
Some climate change experts say CO2 levels passing the 400 ppm threshold further highlights the need to turn the ambitions of the Paris deal – to curb the rise in global temperatures – into concrete action in Marrakesh.