Arctic News: Carbon dioxide reaches record high

Friday, February 7, 2025

Carbon dioxide reaches record high

The daily average carbon dioxide (CO₂) at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, was 428.60 parts per million (ppm) on February 6, 2025, the highest daily average on record. The previous record high was 428.59 ppm on April 26, 2024. To find higher levels, one needs to go back millions of years (see inset).

CO₂ typically reaches its annual maximum in May, so even higher levels can be expected over the next few months.

The image below was part of an analysis of NOAA data for an August 2024 post and has a trend added based on August 2009 through July 2024 data. The trend points at 430 ppm CO₂ getting crossed in February 2025, which would constitute a jump of 10 ppm in two years time (from 420 ppm in February 2023 to 430 ppm in February 2025).

The mean annual carbon dioxide was 424.61 ppm in 2024, an increase of 3.53 ppm compared to 2023 and the highest annual growth on record, as illustrated by the image below. This record high growth rate indicates that emissions of carbon dioxide are increasing while carbon sinks are weakening at the same time.

The above image and the image below are both from an earlier post. The image below shows a trend, based on 2015-2024 annual data, pointing at 1200 ppm CO₂ getting crossed in the year 2032.

The above trend illustrates that the clouds tipping point could get crossed in early 2032 due to rising CO₂ alone, which on its own could push temperatures up by an additional 8°C. The clouds tipping point is actually at 1200 ppm CO₂e, so when growth of other greenhouse gases and further mechanisms are taken into account, the tipping point could be crossed much earlier than in 2032, possibly as early as in 2026, as discussed in an earlier post.

Climate Emergency Declaration

The situation is dire and the precautionary principle calls for rapid, comprehensive and effective climate action to reduce the damage and to improve the situation, as described in this 2022 post, where needed in combination with a Climate Emergency Declaration, as discussed at this group.