The Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii has recorded atmospheric carbon dioxide levels since 1958
Fred Espenak / Science Photo Library
The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere measured by a weather station at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii increased by 3.58 parts per million in 2024 – the largest jump since the start of records in 1958.
“We are still in the wrong direction,” explains the climatologist Richard Betts At the Met Office, the United Kingdom Meteorological Service.
The record increase is partly due to CO2 emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and other human actions, such as forest reduction, reaching a record in 2024. Global temperatures of Schash Record boosted by the The time model for children in addition to long -term warming.
Betts is Provide these atmospheric CO2 levels As measured in Mauna Loa will increase this year by 2.26 parts per million (PPM), with an error margin of 0.56 ppm in both cases. It is much less than the 2024 record, but it will lead us over the last possible way to limit the increase in global surface temperatures to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels.
“You can consider it like another nail in the 1.5 ° C coffin,” explains Betts. “It is now unlikely.”
The level of CO2 in the atmosphere is the most important measure with regard to climate change, because increased atmospheric CO2 is the main factor causing warming and long -term warming. The first current measurements of CO2 levels were carried out in Mauna Loa.
“Because this station has the longest record record of time and is also located far from the main anthropogenic and natural emissions and CO2 wells, it is often used to represent the overall change in CO2 concentrations,” explains Richard Englen to the Copernicus atmosphere supervision of the EU.
With satellite observations, however, it is now possible to directly measure the average world level of atmospheric CO2. According to Cams, it increased by 2.9 ppm in 2024. It is not a record, but it is one of the largest increases since the start of satellite observations.
“The reason for this greater increase requires a more in -depth survey, but it will be a combination of rebound in emissions in large parts of the world after the pandemic covers in combination with interannual variations in the natural carbon well,” explains Engelen. The carbon well refers to the oceans and ecosystems on earth, which absorbed approximately half of the CO2 emissions caused by humans.
It has long been predicted that, as the planet warms up, less from this excess of CO2 is impregnated. “Whether it's the start of this is the worrying thing,” said Betts. “We don't know.”
In Mauna Loa, the increase in CO2 is higher at the average global level due to the large number of forest fires in the northern hemisphere in 2024, explains Betts. It takes time to CO2 plumes from sources such as forest fires to mix evenly in the atmosphere of the whole world. “Fire emissions in the northern hemisphere were particularly important last year,” he said.
Although it now seems certain that global warming will pass the 1.5 ° C limit, Betts thinks that it was always fair to fix it as a target. “The Paris agreement has been carefully formulated – to continue effects to limit warming to 1.5. He was recognized at the beginning that it would be difficult, ”he says. “The idea was to have this extensible target to motivate the action, and in fact I think it has succeeded. It galvanized the action.”
