The UN warned of a new record of greenhouse gas concentration

The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere It reached record levels in 2022, as reported this Wednesday by the United Nations (UN).

In 2022, global average concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas, exceeded pre-industrial values ​​by 50% for the first time and continued to increase this year.

This was indicated by the annual greenhouse gas bulletin of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), published two weeks before the annual UN climate meeting, COP28, which will take place from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai.

“Despite decades of warnings from the scientific community (…) we are still heading in the wrong direction,” declared WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Climate change: what to expect in the coming years

“The current level of greenhouse gas concentrations leads to an increase in temperatures well above the objectives of the Paris Agreement between now and the end of the century,” warned Taalas.

In that agreement, from 2015, it was established that member countries should limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, and to 1.5ºC if possible. However, according to a previous UN report, the average temperature of the planet in 2022 was already 1.15ºC higher than that of pre-industrial times.

“Meteorological conditions will become more extreme: intense heat and heavy rainfall, melting of glaciers, rising sea levels and warming and acidification of the oceans,” said the head of the WMO and asserted that “we will witness a sharp increase in socioeconomic and environmental costs.