UN warns CO₂ levels hit record high, fueling extreme weather

Geneva: The United Nations weather agency announced on Wednesday that global carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in the atmosphere reached record highs last year, warning that the heat trapped by greenhouse gases is “turbo-charging” the planet’s climate and triggering increasingly extreme weather events.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the growth rate of CO₂ has now tripled since the 1960s, driven largely by emissions from human activities and intensifying wildfires, which are fuelling what the agency described as a “vicious climate cycle.”

The Geneva-based agency revealed that the annual increase in the global average concentration of CO₂ between 2023 and 2024 was the highest ever recorded in a single year since measurements began in 1957.

“The heat trapped by CO₂ and other greenhouse gases is turbo-charging our climate and leading to more extreme weather,” said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett. “Reducing emissions is therefore essential not just for our climate but also for our economic security and community well-being.”

The WMO warned that the continuing rise in greenhouse gases is setting the planet on course for a sustained long-term temperature increase, noting that concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide — two other potent greenhouse gases primarily linked to human activity — have also reached record levels.

With PTI inputs