The average level of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere climbed by the largest amount on record between 2023 and 2024, the World Meteorological Organization said on Thursday.
Human activities, mainly the burning of coal, oil and gas for energy, have been driving carbon dioxide concentrations higher and higher for more than half a century. This has warmed Earth rapidly, as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases cause energy from the sun to remain trapped near the planet’s surface. Last year was Earth’s hottest year in recorded history.
Human-caused emissions remained the major driver of the record recent jump in carbon dioxide levels, the largest since modern measurements began in 1957, according to the organization, which is the weather and climate agency of the United Nations.
But an uptick in emissions from wildfires was also likely to have played a role, as was decreased absorption of carbon dioxide by the land and the ocean, the agency said. Severe drought and forest fires can degrade the ability of soil and plants to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while rising ocean temperatures lessen seawater’s capacity to harbor the gas.
Carbon dioxide that is not absorbed by the land or by the seas can remain in the atmosphere for centuries, influencing the climate long after its original release into the skies.
“The heat trapped by CO2 and other greenhouse gases is turbocharging our climate and leading to more extreme weather,” Ko Barrett, the World Meteorological Organization’s deputy secretary general, said in a statement. “Reducing emissions is therefore essential not just for our climate but also for our economic security and community well-being.”
Since 1960, humankind has released roughly 500 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere. China is the world’s top emitter today, though when adding up emissions from the whole of the industrial era, the United States comes out on top.
Under President Trump, the nation is retreating from measuring and reporting its emissions. In April, the Environmental Protection Agency missed an annual deadline to submit data on planet-warming pollution to the U.N. In September, the agency said it would stop requiring thousands of polluting facilities to report the amount of greenhouse gases they release into the air. At his address to the U.N. General Assembly later that month, Mr. Trump lashed out at allies around the world while dismissing the dangers of climate change.
Mr. Trump’s proposed budget would shut down carbon dioxide monitoring observatories and satellites run by federal agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA. In June, the National Institute of Standards and Technology canceled grant funding for a large emissions monitoring effort across multiple American cities.
The Trump administration has also taken steps to repeal the endangerment finding, which provides the scientific foundation for regulating polluters by concluding that greenhouse gases threaten public health.
Raymond Zhong reports on climate and environmental issues for The Times.
Sachi Kitajima Mulkey covers climate and the environment for The Times.
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