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  Yahoo News 3 Nov 06
Greenhouse gases hit record levels in 2005: U.N.

Yahoo News 1 Nov 06
Climate change gases reach record levels in 2005: WMO
by Peter Capella

GENEVA (AFP) - Global concentrations of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas blamed for climate change, reached in 2005 the highest levels ever recorded, the UN's weather agency said Friday.

The trend of growing emissions from industry, transport and power generation from burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal is set to continue despite an international agreement to cap emissions, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) warned.

"To really make CO2 level off we will need more drastic measures than are in the (1997) Kyoto Protocol today," senior WMO scientist Geir Braathen told reporters.

"Every human being on this globe should think about how much CO2 he or she emits and try to do something about that," he said.

The latest data gathered from monitoring stations, ships and aircraft around the world were contained in the WMO's second annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

Globally averaged mean ratios of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere reached 379.1 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 0.5 percent over 2004 Concentrations of nitrous oxide (N2O), another key greenhouse gas, reached 319.2 ppm in 2005, an annual increase of 0.2 percent, the bulletin added.

"In 2005, globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded," the WMO said in a statement.

Braathen said the levels of the two greenhouse gases were increasing at steady rates, in line with a decades-long trend. "It looks like it would continue like this for the foreseeable future," he added.

"The current Kyoto Protocol will not be sufficient to stabilise. It will maybe reduce the increase, but this will still take time," he added.

The treaty sets limits for emissions of six greenhouse gases emitted mainly by burning oil, gas and coal, including carbon dioxide, from 2008, for the 165 countries that have ratified it.

The United States and Australia have rejected the compulsory cap, while developing countries, including China and its booming economy, are not covered by Kyoto.

A report for the British government released this week warned that unchecked climate change would cause huge economic damage worldwide, estimated at between five and 20 percent of global gross domestic product every year.

The governments involved in the Kyoto Protocol are due to meet in Nairobi from Monday to examine their future path in combatting global warming.

The environmental group WWF this week urged them to produce a "clear" plan for a "Kyoto plus" treaty on even deeper cuts in carbon dioxide emissions after 2012.

Braathen said Friday: "Every intiative to bring down greenhouse gases is a welcome one and will help maybe to convince others that change is necessary."

He insisted that the data on greenhouse gases, which scientists only began to gather and analyse systematically at a global level two years ago, was the product of consensus among scientists.

"We believe that this data has a really good scientific foundation," he said. "This has come as a surprise to the scientific community... There is no real good explanation why," Braathen said.

The bulletin showed that levels of another greenhouse gas, methane, which have been following a similar growth pattern to carbon dioxide, have begun to level off since 1999. Methane is produced both by burning fossil fuels, and by natural sources such as wetlands, termites, and ruminant animals like cows.


Yahoo News 3 Nov 06
Greenhouse gases hit record levels in 2005: U.N.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a record last year and are likely to keep rising unless emissions are radically cut, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a report on Friday.

The U.N. weather agency found that the so-called "mixing ratios" of carbon dioxide reached an all- time high of 379.1 parts per billion in 2005, and the global average for nitrous oxide hit a record 319.2 parts per billion.

"It looks like this will continue like this for the foreseeable future," Geir Braathen, senior scientific officer at the Geneva-based organization, said of the rise, which extended the steady upward trend seen in recent decades.

"At least for the next few years, we do not expect any deceleration in the concentration," he said.

Scientists say the accumulation of such gases -- generated by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas -- traps the sun's rays and causes the temperature of the Earth to rise, leading to a melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, a spike in extreme weather, storms and floods, and other environmental shifts that are expected to worsen in coming years.

Speaking ahead of a major U.N. meeting on climate change next week in Nairobi, Braathen said the Kyoto Protocol on emissions-cutting was not strong enough in its current form to stabilize or cut the build-up of greenhouse gases.

"To really make C02 (carbon dioxide) concentrations level off, we will need more drastic measures than are in the Kyoto Protocol today," he said.

The pact took effect last year and calls for the greenhouse gases emitted by developed countries to be cut to at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

A detailed study of the economics of global warming, issued in London on Monday, said that if determined global action to tackle climate change were taken now, the benefits would far outweigh the economic and human costs.

Failure to act swiftly could result in world temperatures rising by 5 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) over the next century, causing severe floods and droughts and uprooting some 200 million people, the Stern report said.
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