The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached an average value of 419 parts per million (ppm) in May 2021, the highest ever recorded in 63 years, since scientific observations began in 1958.
In May 2020, the average CO2 value was 417 ppm.
This was announced by the US meteorological and climate agency, Noaa, and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, California.
The survey was carried out at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaai.
"We are adding roughly 40 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere every year - comments the researcher Pieter Tans on the Noaa website -. It is a mountain of carbon that we take out of the Earth, burn and release into the atmosphere as CO2, year after. year. If we are to avoid catastrophic climate change, the top priority must be to reduce CO2 pollution to zero as soon as possible. "
Noaa writes that the annual increase in CO2 of 1.8ppm from May 2020 to May 2021 is slightly lower than in previous years, but the carbon dioxide measurements at Mauna Loa in the first 5 months of 2021 show an increase of 2.3 ppm on the same months of 2020, close to the average annual increase from 2010 to 2019. The data does not reveal a detectable data of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere today is comparable to that of the Pliocene Climatic Optimal, between 4.1 and 4.5 million years ago, when carbon dioxide was around 400 parts per million. At that time, the sea level was about 24 meters higher than today and the average temperature was almost 4 degrees higher than that of the pre-industrial era. Research indicates that large forests then occupied areas of the Arctic that are now tundra.
Ispra, in 2021 in Italy + 0.3% emissions
. In Italy for 2021 an increase in greenhouse gas emissions of 0.3% is expected compared to 2020, against a forecast of a 1.9% increase in GDP. This was stated by the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra) on the basis of the first available data on this year's performance. The cause of the increase in emissions is the "consequence of the resumption of economic activities".
For Ispra - which confirms "the decoupling between emissions and the trend of the economic index" - this "trend confirms the need for structural, technological and behavioral changes that minimize greenhouse gas emissions in the medium and long term".
The estimate is due - it is explained - to the reduction of emissions for the production of electricity (minus 1.4%), the increase in hydroelectric production in the face of an increase in energy demand and the reduction of energy consumption in transport ( minus 0.9%); but to an increase in emissions in other sectors such as industry (plus 2.7%) and heating (plus 1.5%).