Greenhouse gases hit record high
November 3, 2006
Levels in the atmosphere of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change continued to rise last year, a UN agency has announced.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said levels were likely to keep rising unless emissions were slashed.
The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rose by about half a percent last year, according to the body.
The most common greenhouse gas is water vapour, followed by carbon dioxide (CO2) nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane.
"There is no sign that N2O and CO2 are starting to level off," Geir Braathen, a senior scientist at the WMO told reporters.
"It looks like it will just continue like this for the foreseeable future."
Scientists say the accumulation of such gases - generated by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas - traps the Sun's rays and causes global temperatures to rise.
This is expected to lead to melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, rising sea levels and extreme weather such as storms and floods.
'Drastic measures'
The WMO said quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) were measured at 379.1 parts per million (ppm), up 0.53% from 377.1 ppm in 2004.
Concentrations of nitrous oxide (N2O) reached 319.2 ppm in 2005, an annual increase of 0.2%.
Levels of methane, another so-called greenhouse gas, remained stable, it said.
The trend of growing emissions from industry, transport and power generation is set to continue despite an international agreement to cap emissions, the UN agency warned.
"To really make CO2 level off we will need more drastic measures than are in the Kyoto Protocol today," Geir Braathen explained.
"Every human being on this globe should think about how much CO2 he or she emits and try to do something about that."
The latest data were gathered from monitoring stations, ships and aircraft around the world and are published in the WMO's second annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
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