Atmospheric CO₂ Levels Reached Another High in 2018

The concentration of the greenhouse gas is now one-and-a-half times what it was before the Industrial Revolution, the World Meteorological Association says.

Written byShawna Williams

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The level of CO₂ in the Earth’s atmosphere hit a record 407.8 parts per million last year, the World Meteorological Association announced yesterday (November 25) in a report. The findings “underlined the glaring—and growing—gap between agreed targets to tackle global warming and the actual reality,” the WMO says in a statement.

The increase in CO₂ levels from 2017 to 2018 was “just above the average over the last decade,” according to the WMO’s press release, and puts the total concentration of the gas at nearly 150 percent what it was in 1750, before the Industrial Revolution accelerated the rate of human-induced carbon emissions. The concentrations of two other major greenhouse gases, methane and nitrous oxide, also rose last year at a higher rate than average for the decade.

“There is no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline, in greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere ...

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Meet the Author

Shawna Williams
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Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previously, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, and in the communications offices of several academic research institutions. As news director, Shawna assigned and edited news, opinion, and in-depth feature articles for the website on all aspects of the life sciences. She is based in central Washington State, and is a member of the Northwest Science Writers Association and the National Association of Science Writers.
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