The United Nations should soon be able to better observe the greenhouse gases that cause climate change by coordinating the monitoring operations that already exist in different regions of the world.
The Executive Council of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has approved the project to create a global greenhouse gas monitoring infrastructure, which it should coordinate, intended to fill the gaps in knowledge and production of data and to support measures to mitigate their emissions.
The decision was adopted at an Executive Council meeting last week, the agency said on Monday. The project must still be validated by the WMO Congress in May.
“WMO’s decision to put its experience and skills […] serving a generational challenge like climate change mitigation will be considered a historic milestone,” WMO Deputy Director of Infrastructure Department Lars Peter Riishojgaard said in a statement.
The new framework should facilitate surface and space-based greenhouse gas observation systems, with common standards and quick access to its measurements. The ultimate goal is to better inform on strategies aimed at combating global warming.
“We know from our measurements that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are at an all-time high. Rising CO levels2 between 2020 and 2021 was higher than the average growth rate of the last decade and methane has seen the largest year-on-year increase since measurements began,” said the WMO Secretary-General, Petteri Taalas, in the press release.
“But uncertainties remain, particularly regarding the role in the carbon cycle of the ocean, terrestrial biosphere and permafrost areas,” he noted, stressing the importance of this global monitoring. integrated to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The planet has gained nearly +1.2°C since the pre-industrial era, already leading to an increase in heat waves, floods and storms. The international community has pledged to limit this warming to well below +2°C, +1.5°C if possible, but current policies point to a temperature rise of 2.8°C by the end of the century, well above the limits of the Paris agreement, according to the UN.
In February, the WMO brought together more than 250 specialists in oceans, space, climate and meteorology who concluded that a global monitoring system for GHGs was needed, the three main ones being carbon dioxide. of carbon (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide.