Humanity enters ‘new era of climate change’ as CO2 levels break all records: WMO

New Delhi:  The world has now entered a new climate reality era, with average concentration of CO2 expected to remain above the threshold level of 400 parts per million throughout 2016, according to the World Meteorological Organization. 

The WMO in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin on Monday stated that stated that while CO2 levels had "previously reached the 400ppm barrier for certain months of the year and in certain locations" this had never happened "on a global average basis for the entire year."

According to the Guardian, WMO bulletin also reveals that In 2015, for the first time, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were at 400 parts per million (ppm) on average across the year as a whole.

World’s longest established greenhouse gas monitoring station at Mauna Loa in Hawaii estimates carbon dioxide concentrations in atmosphere will stay above the symbolic 400ppm for the whole of 2016 and reach new highs. It will not dip below the 400ppm mark again for many generations, the experts said.  

In between 2014 and 2015, the world witnessed a bigger-than-average increase in the levels of green house gases which was fuelled by the El Niño weather phenomenon in the Pacific.

In 2015, the El Niño was exceptionally strong and that it why it triggered more droughts in tropical regions and reduced the ability of forests, vegetation and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide, leaving more in the atmosphere.