Carbon dioxide levels hit new record at NIWA monitoring station off Wellington coast

The latest data from New Zealand’s monitoring stations shows there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than ever before.

The rate of growth is accelerating as global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to rise.

Leading climate scientists said the latest temperature rise was “truly discouraging” after decades of warnings to policymakers and the public.

One is to urge the public to “get out there” and make sure politicians know they want to see action on climate change.

Final data for 2023 from NIWA’s Balin Head clean air monitoring station on the Wellington coast showed an annual average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of 416 parts per million (ppm), up from an average of 414 ppm the previous year.

Baring Head is Global Site Network It helps us gain a comprehensive understanding of the levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the global atmosphere.

It is the longest operating clean air station in the Southern Hemisphere, capturing a “baseline” sample of air rushing in from the Southern Ocean to prevent it from becoming polluted by any interaction with land-based activities.

Carbon dioxide concentrations measured at Ras Bahrain have increased 28% since monitoring began in December 1972, when concentrations of 326 ppm were recorded.

Since then, the station has never recorded such a low measurement.

NIWA chief atmospheric technician Gordon Brailsford said the exact concentrations depended on where around the world the samples were collected, but the trends at Ras Bahrain replicated what scientists had observed elsewhere.

“For a decade, we’ve seen growth… When you look at the trends, it’s intensifying.”

Brailsford said there was no doubt where most of the increase in carbon dioxide came from.

“Can we trace it back with some tracer work to see what the composition of the CO2 is? Can we see a signal in it – we use isotopes to tell us what the source of the increase in CO2 is? Clearly you can find that carbon from fossil sources is contributing to the increased atmospheric burden.”

He said methane levels measured at Ras Bahrain had plateaued in the early 2000s but were now “spiking again”.

Methane has a shorter lifetime in the atmosphere, which makes its inclusion in emissions targets controversial, but its direct warming effect is greater than that of carbon dioxide.

Brailsford said each year’s data is an opportunity to stop and think about whether trends are moving in the right direction.

“Not yet. We are making significant changes to the atmosphere,” he said.

“It’s frustrating that the message we were trying to convey 35 years ago is only just being heard now.”

He said many people can now feel the changes taking place in the atmosphere.

“It’s one thing to have limits and guidelines on how much heating we’re willing to accept, but in reality all of these situations still have a significant impact on the community.”

last month, World records hottest day ——This is just one of many climate records that are currently being broken.

James Renwick, a former climate change commissioner and long-time climate change scientist, echoed Brailsford’s comments.

“It’s frustrating, but it’s also very concerning from a human perspective,” he said.

“We have the Paris Agreement and there is talk at the top about taking action, but clearly we are not taking action.”

New Zealand Emission targets are currently not expected to be met from 2030The government released a draft new emissions reduction plan.

Renwick said that while the data from Baringhead and other air stations is just one piece of the puzzle, “it’s the most important piece.”

“Climate change is caused by human activity – we are emitting greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, into the air.”

The persistence of carbon dioxide means that every additional bit of it in the atmosphere means more warming in the coming years.

“The more emissions there are, the more carbon is there, the longer it stays there, the higher the temperature. So if we want to keep the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees or even 2 degrees, we have to act now.”

However, rather than moving towards zero carbon emissions, the world is “moving very rapidly in the opposite direction”, Renwick said.

“We are accelerating our use of fossil fuels, which is also the main cause of pollutants in the air. So, to me, it was a real wake-up call to see how fast these numbers were spreading.”

Waikato University senior climate change lecturer Luke Harrington said there was evidence that global emissions levels may have peaked.

“But this is a minimum requirement, most likely because of the falling cost of renewable energy rather than anything else,” he said.

Even if emissions stop rising, the fact that atmospheric CO2 concentrations are already increasing means temperatures will continue to rise.

“Warming will only stop when net CO2 emissions fall to zero,” he said.

“Global emissions may have peaked, which is like trying to get to the starting line of a marathon. It’s good work, but there’s really nothing to celebrate.”

Oksana Tarasova, a senior science officer at the World Meteorological Organization, said that while long-term trends or tendencies were most important, other worrying signals were emerging in the latest data.

She said carbon dioxide concentrations were increasing faster between 2022 and 2023 than human emissions.

The persistent La Niña weather pattern from 2021 to early 2023 brought heavy rainfall to New Zealand and Australia, but caused drought across the Pacific, putting enormous pressure on forests in the Americas.

“When forests are stressed, they slow down their growth… which means they reduce the amount of carbon dioxide they absorb from the atmosphere.”

Tarasova said the El Nino-La Nina cycle is a natural phenomenon, but climate change is making the fluctuations more severe.

“It’s really concerning that we’re seeing such a massive response in the biosphere.”

“Economic actors” such as private companies play an important role in reducing emissions because they can react much faster than governments.

“The political process is very slow,” she said. “We shouldn’t rely endlessly on policy because it’s not fast enough.”

Tarasova said the notion of meeting emissions targets “on schedule” was also questionable.

United Nations Environment Programme Emissions Gap Report The study found that even if every country met its current pledges, it would not be enough to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Gordon Brailsford says today’s attention to climate change trends gives him hope.

“Thirty-something years ago, this would have been almost a topic of conversation, but now people are engaged and want to know. That’s great because if people want to know, they’re thinking about these issues,” he said.

“This mitigation process is not impossible, but it does require a lot of collective action.”

James Renwick said individuals could continue to take steps to reduce their own carbon footprint, but many of the wider solutions to reducing emissions were “not mysterious”.

“There are a number of steps that can be taken and the Climate Change Committee has advised the government on all of them,” he said.

“We just need the political will to start taking action. So if people want to speak up and complain to their MPs, I will do that directly.

“We should make sure our elected leaders know we care — and certainly business leaders should know as well… So don’t just sit there and endure it — get out there and make your voice heard.”