World Goes Through 'New Era' Of Climate Change As CO2 Reaches Symbolic Threshold

First Posted: Oct 25, 2016 04:57 AM EDT

The world enters a new era of climate change as the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hits a symbolic threshold. It is expected to surge 400 parts per million on average this year 2016 and will not fall below for generations, according to United Nations.

The Guardian reports that the greenhouse gas monitoring in the world located at Mauna Loa in Hawaii foresees the carbon dioxide will stay above the symbolic 400ppm in 2016. Experts said that it will not dip below 400ppm mark for generations.

The El Niño causes the spike in the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is triggered by the drought conditions in tropical regions caused by El Niño, in which the vegetation could not absorb CO2. The emissions from fires also added to the increase of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The levels of CO2, which is 400 parts per million (ppm) means 400 molecules of CO2 for every one million molecules in the atmosphere. Experts said that the last time carbon dioxide was above 400ppm was three to five million years ago, according to BBC.

World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said that the year 2015 ushered a new era of optimism and climate action with the Paris climate change agreement. On the other hand, it will also make history as marking a new era of climate change reality with record high greenhouse gas concentrations. This also includes the increase in other greenhouse gasses such as methane and nitrous oxide. The methane reached 2,5 times greater than in the pre-industrial era. Meanwhile, the nitrous oxide was 1.2 times above the historic measure in 2015.

"without tackling CO2 emissions, we cannot tackle climate change and keep temperature increases to below 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial era," said Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. He further said that it is therefore of the utmost significance that the Paris Agreement does indeed enter force well ahead of schedule on November 4 and they fast-track its implementation.