Greenhouse gases continued to increase rapidly in 2022

The Global Monitoring Division of NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory has measured carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for several decades at a globally distributed network of air sampling sites. Credit: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory

Levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane and nitrous oxide, the three greenhouse gases emitted by human activity that are the most significant contributors to climate change, continued their historically high rates of growth in the atmosphere during 2022, according to NOAA scientists.

The global surface average for CO₂ rose by 2.13 parts per million (ppm) to 417.06 ppm, roughly the same rate observed during the last decade. Atmospheric CO₂ is now 50% higher than pre-industrial levels. 2022 was the 11th consecutive year CO₂ increased by more than 2 ppm, the highest sustained rate of CO₂ increases in the 65 years since monitoring began. Prior to 2013, three consecutive years of CO₂  growth of 2 ppm or more had never been recorded.

Atmospheric methane, which is far less abundant but much more potent than CO₂ at trapping heat in the atmosphere, increased to an average of 1,911.9 parts per billion (ppb). The 2022 methane increase was 14.0 ppb, the fourth-largest annual increase recorded since NOAA’s systematic measurements began in 1983, and follows record growth in 2020 and 2021. Methane levels in the atmosphere are now more than two and a half times their pre-industrial level.