Madeleine Cuff in New Scientist:
In the holiday resort of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, the stage is being set for COP27, the next round of UN climate talks, which kicks off on 6 November.
As delegates prepared to head to the summit, a flurry of sobering reports released last week reminded the world that greenhouse gas concentrations are rising and hopes of delivering on the promises of the 2015 Paris Agreement are fading fast.
First came the stark but unsurprising news from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that atmospheric concentrations of planet-warming carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane hit a record high in 2021 and have continued to rise throughout 2022.
Atmospheric CO₂ , responsible for about 66 per cent of global warming since 1750, hit 415.5 parts per million in 2021, the WMO said. Meanwhile, methane registered the largest single-year increase since researchers started keeping records 40 years ago.
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