The project still needs to be validated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Congress in May. But it is one more step towards global monitoring of greenhouse gases, which cause climate change, that the UN has taken. The United Nations should be able to coordinate the monitoring operations that already exist in different parts of the world.

This project to create a global greenhouse gas monitoring infrastructure has been approved by the WMO Executive Council, which is expected to coordinate it. The decision was adopted at an Executive Council meeting last week, the agency said Monday.

"WMO's decision to bring its experience and expertise (...) serving a generational challenge such as climate change mitigation will be seen as a historic milestone," WMO Deputy Director of the WMO Infrastructure Department, Lars Peter Riishojgaard, said in a statement.

Better inform on strategies to follow

The new framework should facilitate surface and space-based greenhouse gas observing systems, with common standards and timely access to its measurements. The ultimate goal is to better inform about strategies to combat global warming.

"We know from our measurements that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are at an all-time high. The increase in CO2 levels between 2020 and 2021 has been higher than the average growth rate of the last decade and methane has seen the largest year-on-year increase since measurements began," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in the statement.

"But uncertainties remain, particularly regarding the role of the ocean, terrestrial biosphere and permafrost in the carbon cycle," he noted, stressing the importance of this integrated global monitoring to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Towards a 2.8°C rise in temperatures

The planet has gained nearly +1.2 ° C since the pre-industrial era, already leading to a multiplication of heat waves, floods or storms. The international community has pledged to limit this warming to well below +2°C, +1.5°C if possible, but current policies point to a 2.8°C rise in temperatures by the end of the century, well above the limits of the Paris Agreement, according to the UN.



In February, WMO had brought together more than 250 ocean, space, climate and meteorological experts who had concluded that there was a need for a global GHG monitoring system, the three main ones being carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide.

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