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Greenhouse Gases'
Continued Rise
© BBC News 2007
Rising levels of
greenhouse gases are blamed for climate
change
The steady rise in
atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gases blamed
for climate change shows no signs of abating, a UN
agency has announced.
The atmospheric
concentration of carbon dioxide rose by about half
a percent in 2005, the World Meteorological
Organisation (WMO) said.
It said levels were
likely to keep rising unless emissions of CO2,
methane and nitrogen oxides were
slashed.
 The
announcement comes on the eve of UN climate
negotiations in Nairobi (January
2007)
"There is no sign
that N2O (nitrous oxide) and CO2 are starting to
level off," Geir Braathen, a senior scientist at
the WMO, told reporters.
To make CO2 level
off we will need more drastic measures than are
in the Kyoto Protocol today
"It looks like it
will just continue like this for the foreseeable
future."
Scientists say the
accumulation of such gases - generated by burning
fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas - traps
energy coming originally from the Sun, causing
global temperatures to rise.
This is expected to
lead to melting of polar ice caps and glaciers,
rising sea levels and more extreme weather events
such as storms and floods.
'Drastic
measures'
The WMO said
concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) were
measured at 379.1 parts per million (ppm), up 0.53%
from 377.1 ppm in 2004.
Concentrations of
nitrous oxide (N2O) reached 319.2 parts per billion
(ppb) in 2005, an annual increase of
0.2%.
Levels of methane,
another greenhouse gas, remained stable, it
said.
The trend of growing
emissions from industry, transport and power
generation is set to continue despite international
agreements on regulating them, the UN agency
warned.
"To really make CO2
level off we will need more drastic measures than
are in the Kyoto Protocol today," Geir Braathen
explained.
"Every human being on
this globe should think about how much CO2 he or
she emits and try to do something about
that."
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Compulsory
caps
