Climate Change: Industrial Slowdown Has Not Curbed CO2 Rise

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Monday that greenhouse gas emissions spiked in 2019 and continue to rise in 2020.

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The WMO latest report explains that contrary to expectations, "the industrial slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has not curbed record levels of greenhouse gases which are trapping heat in the atmosphere, increasing temperatures and driving more extreme weather, ice melt, sea-level rise and ocean acidification."

The organization notices that although the lockdown has cut emissions of many pollutants gases, including carbon dioxide, the overall impact over CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere is not more significant than the "year to year fluctuations in the carbon cycle and the high natural variability in carbon sinks like vegetation."

Moreover, the WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas pointed out that “Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries and the ocean for even longer. The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago when the temperature was 2-3°C warmer, and sea level was 10-20 meters higher than now. But there weren’t 7.7 billion inhabitants."

The alarming data indicates that although daily CO2 emissions were reduced by 17 percent worldwide because of the lockdowns, CO2 will continue to increase although "at a slightly reduced pace."

The WMO highlights that these findings demonstrate the necessity of "a sustained flattening of the curve" through net-zero emissions policies and renewable energy expansion.