Greenhouse gas build-up reached new high in 2020: United Nations

UN weather agency warns the world is 'way off track' on reaching goals for capping rising temperatures

Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year and the world is "way off track" on capping rising temperatures, the United Nations said on Monday, showing the task facing climate talks in Glasgow aimed at averting dangerous levels of warming.
 

A report by the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) showed carbon dioxide levels surged to 413.2 parts per million in 2020, rising more than the average rate over the last decade despite a temporary dip in emissions during Covid-19 lockdowns.
 

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said the current rate of increase in heat-trapping gases would result in temperature rises "far in excess" of the 2015 Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average this century.
 

“We are way off track,” he said. “We need to revisit our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life,” he added, calling for a “dramatic increase” in commitments at the COP26 conference beginning on Sunday.
 

The Scottish city of Glasgow was putting on the final touches before hosting the climate talks, which may be the world's last best chance to cap global warming at the 1.5-2 degrees Celsius upper limit set out in the Paris Agreement. “It is going to be very, very tough this summit,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said during a news conference with children.
 

"I am very worried because it might go wrong and we might not get the agreements that we need and it is touch and go, it is very, very difficult, but I think it can be done," he said. The German government announced Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Glasgow to take part.  
 

The stakes for the planet are huge — among them the impact on economic livelihoods the world over and the future stability of the global financial system.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince said on Saturday that the world's top oil exporter aims to reach "net zero" emissions of greenhouse gases, mostly produced by burning fossil fuels, by 2060 - 10 years later than the US. He also said it would double the emissions cuts it plans to achieve by 2030. Australia's cabinet was expected to formally adopt a target for net zero emissions by 2050 when it meets on Monday to review a deal rea­ched between parties in Prime Minister Scott Morrison's coalition government, official sources told Reuters. 
 

The ruling coalition has been divided over how to tackle climate change, with the gover­nment maintaining that harder targets would damage the A$2-trillion ($1.5-trillion) economy. In Berlin, officials from Germany and Canada were set to present a plan about how rich countries can help poorer nations finance the overhaul needed to address climate change.

Wealthy countries have so far failed to deliver their 2009 pledge to provide $100 billion per year in climate finance to poorer countries by 2020.