GENEVA, 24th May, 2023 (WAM) – A hundred and ninety-three countries have unanimously approved the creation of a global greenhouse gas monitoring mechanism, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) announced on Wednesday.
The landmark decision comes as heat-trapping greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels – “higher than at any time over the last 800,000 years”, WMO warned.
The new Global Greenhouse Gas Watch will combine observations from Earth and from space with modelling, to fill critical information gaps. It will build on WMO’s experience in coordinating international collaboration on weather prediction.
The agency said that the exchange of data will be “free and unrestricted”, in support of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
According to WMO, between 1990 and 2021, the warming effect on our climate from the main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, rose by nearly 50 per cent.
“We know from our measurements that greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels”, said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. “The increase in carbon dioxide levels from 2020 to 2021 was higher than the average growth rate over the past decade and methane saw the biggest year-on-year jump since measurements started.