Greenhouse gas concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane has severely increased in 2022, according to a preliminary report led by researchers in Germany. The accumulation of the gases in the atmosphere is gradual.
However, the latest findings show that the climate crisis could worsen as the concentrations heads toward dangerous levels.
Prior to 2023, the United Nations (UN) spearheaded several conferences tackling human-induced greenhouse gases, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and inter-governmental cooperation to address the climate emergency issue.
The latest gathering was the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference held in Canada between December 7 and 19.
Greenhouse Gas Concentrations
SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT - NOVEMBER 09: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks prior to the presentation the new Climate TRACE platform, a highly detailed facility-level global inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, at the UNFCCC COP27 climate conference on November 09, 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Climate TRACE combines open-source data and imagery from multiple satellite systems with artificial intelligence to determine actual emissions of greenhouse gases, including CO2 and methane, from sites across the globe. According to the data the single highest emitter is the oil-producing Permian Basin in Texas. The COP27 conference is bringing together political leaders and representatives from 190 countries to discuss climate-related topics including climate change adaptation, climate finance, decarbonisation, agriculture and biodiversity. The conference is running from November 6-18.
The chemical compounds carbon dioxide and methane are some of the most climate-damaging greenhouse gases in the world. Frequently targeted by climate change mitigation efforts, the said compounds accelerate the planet-warming greenhouse effect when suspended in the atmosphere for prolonged periods of time and in large concentrations.
This January, researchers from the University of Bremen in Germany conducted preliminary analyses of global satellite data, showing that atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4 continued to rise sharply in 2022. The increase of both gases similar to previous years. However, methane is below its record levels in 2020 and 2021.
Environmental physicist Dr. Michael Buchwitz said methane increase remains very high at around 0.6%, while carbon increase is over 0.5% in 2022, as cited by Phys.org. The university's Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) was involved in the said analysis. IUP is one of the leaders in the field of evaluation and interpretation of global satellite measurements of atmospheric trace gases.
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Greenhouse Gas Emissions
While the absolute removal of these gases in the atmosphere is both impossible and also detrimental to the planet, the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and other international initiatives work on to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the burning of fossil fuels. However, the objective is easier said than done based on previous reports which suggests some countries are far from their goals.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), greenhouse gases are capable of trapping heat and make the planet warmer, adding humans activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in these climate-damaging particles in the atmosphere over the last 150 years.
In the US, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from anthropogenic activities is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation, says the EPA; which stated transportation accounts for 27% emissions followed by industry with 24% and electric power with 25%.
While reducing emissions seems plausible, other measures have also been given importance as well to alter the effects of a changing climate and a warming planet.
In a recent announcement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated 2023 should be a 'no-nonsense' climate ambition summit, emphasizing that 2023 should be "a year for peace" and "year of action." The UN chief also highlighted that the world needs practical solutions against a myriad of problems facing the planet.
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