Atmospheric CO2 levels rise sharply despite Covid-19 lockdowns

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/04/atmospheric-co2-levels-rise-sharply-despite-covid-19-lockdowns


Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
Thu 4 Jun 2020 09.06 EDT


Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen strongly to a new peak this year, despite the impact of the global effects of the coronavirus crisis.

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 417.2 parts per million in May, 2.4ppm higher than the peak of 414.8ppm in 2019, according to readings from the Mauna Loa observatory in the US.

Without worldwide lockdowns intended to slow the spread of Covid-19, the rise might have reached 2.8ppm, according to Ralph Keeling, a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He said it was likely they had played a small role, but that the difference was too small to show up against other factors causing year-to-year fluctuations.

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This year’s rise is slightly weaker than last year’s, but matches the average annual rise for the past decade. The amount of carbon fluctuates based on various factors, including the effects of the El Niño weather system in the Pacific.

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The latest data comes from Scripps scientists at the University of California San Diego and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They found that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere first rose above 400ppm in 2014. The annual rate of growth in emissions has been speeding up.

In the 1960s, the annual growth averaged about 0.8ppm, doubling to 1.6ppm a year in the 1980s and remaining steady at 1.5ppm in the 1990s. The average growth rate increased to about 2.0ppm a year in the 2000s, and has risen further to about 2.4ppm during the last decade.

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