Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels reached an all-time high in May, the month when CO2 peaks in the Northern Hemisphere.
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Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are now more than double what they were before the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday.
The Washington, D.C.-based scientific and regulatory agency, which has been independently monitoring the situation since 1974, said CO2 levels at its Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory peaked at 424 parts per million (ppm) in May, up 3.0 ppm over May 2022.
According to the agency, the annual increase in Keeling Curve peak is the fourth-largest on record and the continuation of a climb into values not seen for millions of years. The curve is named after David Keeling, who started measuring CO2 levels for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1958. The latter, which also maintains an independent record, reported an average of 423.78 ppm for May, also an increase of 3.0 ppm from last year.
“What we’d like to see is the curve plateauing and even falling because carbon dioxide as high as 420 or 425 parts per million is not good,” Keeling’s son Ralph Keeling, who now runs the Scripps programme, said in the NOAA statement. “It shows that as much as we’ve done to mitigate and reduce emissions, we still have a long way to go.”
Full record of monthly mean carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. Image: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels were consistently around 280 ppm for almost 6,000 years of human civilisation. According to NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, the steady annual increase is a “direct result of human activity,” mainly from the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and electricity generation but also from cement manufacturing, deforestation, and agriculture.
Rising CO2 levels have devastating consequences on the environment, from amplifying extreme weather events including heatwaves, floods, droughts, and wildfires, to heating up oceans, resulting in rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and disruption of marine habitats and ecosystems.
“While we will have to adapt to the climate impacts we cannot avoid, we must expend every effort to slash carbon pollution and safeguard this planet and the life that calls it home,” Spinrad added.
The latest report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 for a chance to meet the 1.5C target. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said last month that, despite pledges and commitments from governments around the world to cap global warming, there is a 66% chance that the world will breach the 1.5C threshold in the next four years, owing to a rise in anthropogenic carbon emissions and an imminent El Niño weather pattern expected later this year.
Advancements in the clean energy sector, however, indicate that there is still hope that humanity will change the course before the impacts of global warming become irreversible.
Last week, the International Energy Agency said that investments in clean technologies – such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, and low-emissions fuels – are forecast to reach $1.7 trillion this year. In comparison, $1 trillion will go into fossil fuel projects. The “unprecedented momentum” in renewable energy manufacturing and global spending on clean energy was triggered by several factors, including a strong rebound in economic growth following the Covid-19 pandemic, effective climate policies such as the US Inflation Reduction Act, and rising fossil fuel prices triggered by the war in Ukraine.
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