The United Nations reported that record concentration was recorded in 2023 gases greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, which perpetuates the temperature increase for years.
UN: Greenhouse gas concentrations have broken records
Emissions of the main greenhouse gases – dioxide – increased last year coalmethane and nitrous oxide. The report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) stated that carbon dioxide is accumulating the fastest in the atmosphere, reaching a level of 51%. higher than around 1750, i.e. before the industrial era. Over the last twenty years, carbon dioxide concentration has increased by 11.4%. The head of the World Meteorological Organization, Andrea Celeste Saulo, pointed out that this proves the lack of implementation of the Paris Agreements by member states. In 2015, countries agreed to limit global temperature increases to one and a half degrees, or at most two degrees, compared to values ​​at the turn of the 20th century.
In 2023, temperatures recorded on land and oceans were the highest since 1850, or for 173 years. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is so high that if all greenhouse gas emissions were sharply cut, temperatures would continue to rise for several decades.
Climate change means longer and stronger heatwaves
According to the government document “State Ecological Policy”, climate scenarios for Poland show that the most common weather phenomena related to global warming in this decade will be waves heatwave with a tendency to lengthen time their occurrence. An increase in the number of hot days (with maximum temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius) is forecast for the largest cities in Poland.
Weather in a given period depends on a number of variables and regardless of climate change, there are hotter and colder periods. However, as the planet's average temperature increases, the initial temperature becomes higher. So what used to be an extremely hot period is becoming a more frequent occurrence with climate change, with days with temperatures as high as never before seen in a given location. “What we call today an 'extreme heat wave' will, within decades, simply be called 'summer' unless we sharply reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The choice is ours…” – warns one of the most famous climate scientists in the world, Michael E. Mann.
You can read more about the effects of the climate crisis and the solutions we have to fight it on the website Zielona.Gazeta.pl.