Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a new record in 2020: UN

The World Meteorological Organization reported Monday that greenhouse gas concentrations hit a new record high last year and increased at a faster rate than the annual average for the last decade despite a temporary reduction during pandemic-related lockdowns.

In its annual report on heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, the UN weather agency also pointed to signs of a worrying new development: Parts of the Amazon rainforest have gone from being a carbon "sink" that sucks carbon dioxide from the air to a source of CO2 due to deforestation and reduced humidity in the region, it said.

According to the report, concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide were all above levels in the pre-industrial era before 1750, when human activities "started disrupting Earth's natural equilibrium."

The report's release came days before the start of a UN climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Many environmental activists, policymakers and scientists say the Oct. 31-Nov. 12 event, known as COP26 for short, marks an important and even crucial opportunity for concrete commitments to the targets set out in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

"The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin contains a stark, scientific message for climate change negotiators at COP26," World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said of his agency's report. "At the current rate of increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, we will see a temperature increase by the end of this century far in excess of the Paris agreement targets of 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels."