Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, hit record highs last year and have continued climbing this year, despite measures to halt the coronavirus pandemic, the UN says.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says lockdowns, border closures, flight groundings and other measures to rein in the coronavirus crisis indeed cut emissions of many pollutants and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
Pollution in Haifa, April 15, 2015. (Basel Awidat/FLASH90)
But it warns the industrial slowdown due to the pandemic has not curbed record concentrations of the greenhouse gases that are trapping heat in the atmosphere, raising temperatures, causing sea levels to rise and driving more extreme weather.
“The lockdown-related fall in emissions is just a tiny blip on the long-term graph,” WMO chief Petteri Taalas says in a statement. “We need a sustained flattening of the curve.”
— AFP
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