---
title: "World Meteorological Organisation: New greenhouse gas records"
description: New records for greenhouse gases CO₂, methane, and nitrous oxide highlight the urgent need for climate action as the atmosphere warms. Explore the implications.
---

[Treedom Blog: Sustainable & Green Lifestyle](https://blog.treedom.net/en)

# [World Meteorological Organisation: New greenhouse gas records](https://blog.treedom.net/en/organizzazione-meteo-mondiale-nuovi-record-dei-gas-serra)

 Written by [Tommaso Ciuffoletti](https://blog.treedom.net/en/author/tommaso-ciuffoletti) | Oct 27, 2026, 2:44:52 PM

**The new report from the World Meteorological Organization records unprecedented concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. It is more than a snapshot of atmospheric pollution: it measures an imbalance that accumulates over time and will shape the climate for decades, if not centuries. To understand what these figures tell us, we need to distinguish emissions from the concentration of gases in the atmosphere, understand the role of ecosystems and examine the decisions needed to limit global warming.**

On 27 October 2026, the <https://wmo.int/>World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a United Nations agency, published its latest [*Greenhouse Gas Bulletin*](https://library.wmo.int/records/item/69986-no-22-27-october-2026). Based on global observations collected through 2025, the report documents new record atmospheric concentrations of the main long-lived greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O).

The most significant figure is that for carbon dioxide (CO₂), whose global average concentration reached 426.8 parts per million (ppm) in 2025. To understand the scale of this value, it is worth comparing it with two reference points: before the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric CO₂ concentrations stood at around 280 ppm, meaning that today's level is approximately 53% higher. Between 2024 and 2025, the concentration increased by 2.8 ppm. This was lower than the exceptional increase recorded in the previous year, but still enough to push the global average to a new record. Methane and nitrous oxide also reached unprecedented levels, at 1,948 parts per billion and 339.1 parts per billion, respectively.

The figures are important, but they do not explain themselves. To understand their significance, we need to start with a fundamental distinction: the report does not simply measure how much greenhouse gas we emitted over the past year; it measures how much is present in the atmosphere after decades of emissions, absorption and transformation. It is the difference between the flow entering a system and the quantity that accumulates within it over time.

The report comes just weeks before [COP31, the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in Antalya](https://unfccc.int/cop31), Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026. The scientific picture emerging from the report raises a clear question: as international negotiations seek to turn climate commitments into concrete action, the atmosphere continues to accumulate gases that trap energy and drive global warming.

The full report is available on the [World Meteorological Organization website](https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/greenhouse-gas-levels-once-again-reach-record-high).

## **The figures in the WMO report**

The three gases examined have different characteristics, but they share one crucial feature: their presence in the atmosphere alters the Earth's energy balance.

| **Greenhouse gas** | **Global average concentration in 2025** | **Level relative to the pre-industrial period** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Carbon dioxide (CO₂) | 426.8 ppm | 153% |
| Methane (CH₄) | 1,948 ppb | 267% |
| Nitrous oxide (N₂O) | 339.1 ppb | 126% |

*Source: WMO, Greenhouse Gas Bulletin No. 22. The pre-industrial reference used in the report is 1750. ppm means parts per million; ppb means parts per billion.*

The figure of 153% for CO₂, for example, means that its atmospheric concentration is approximately 53% higher than in the pre-industrial period. Methane has increased by 167%, while nitrous oxide is up by 26%.

CO₂ remains central to the climate debate because of its role in the greenhouse effect and the quantities emitted by human activities. But it would be a mistake to overlook the other gases. Methane has a shorter atmospheric lifetime than CO₂, but a particularly strong warming effect over a period of several decades. Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for a long time and is also associated with the use of nitrogen fertilisers and other agricultural and industrial processes.

*Why is a record concentration so significant?*  
*To answer that question, we need to clarify three key concepts.*

**Emissions** are flows of gas released into the atmosphere by human activities and natural sources. The main sources of human-caused CO₂ emissions include the burning of coal, oil and gas, industrial processes such as cement production, and land-use changes, including deforestation.

**Atmospheric concentration** is the amount of a gas present in the air at a given time. It depends on the balance between what enters the atmosphere and what is removed through natural processes and, to varying degrees, human intervention. For CO₂, this means considering both emissions and absorption by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems.

**Global warming** is a consequence of the energy imbalance caused by increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. Their growing presence changes how energy from the Sun, absorbed by the Earth's surface and then re-emitted as infrared radiation, travels through the atmosphere and escapes into space.

This distinction helps us understand a crucial point: even if annual emissions stopped increasing, atmospheric concentrations could continue to rise as long as emissions exceeded the amount of CO₂ removed from the atmosphere. Stabilising CO₂ concentrations globally requires achieving a net balance of zero between emissions and removals. To reduce concentrations, net removals would have to exceed emissions.

This is why a new concentration record does not necessarily mean that emissions have increased by the same amount compared with the previous year. It means that the overall balance continues to add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

## **The role of CO₂**

Carbon dioxide is a natural component of the atmosphere. Plants use it in photosynthesis; organisms release it through respiration; organic matter returns it to the environment as it decomposes; and the oceans absorb it and continuously exchange it with the air.

The climate problem is therefore not the presence of CO₂ itself, but the speed and scale at which human activities are increasing its concentration, disrupting a natural cycle that operates over timescales far longer than industrial history.  
Burning fossil fuels rapidly transfers carbon into the atmosphere that had been stored underground for millions of years. Deforestation and ecosystem degradation can also reduce the capacity to absorb carbon and release carbon already stored in vegetation and soils.

To explore the physical mechanism linking CO₂ to global warming in more detail, we dedicated an article to a seemingly simple question: [How does CO₂ actually warm the Earth?](https://blog.treedom.net/en/co2).

**In brief: why CO₂ warms the Earth**

The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon that is essential to life as we know it. Without the greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere, the Earth's average surface temperature would be much lower. The problem arises when human activities increase their concentration, intensifying a natural mechanism.

The Earth's surface absorbs some of the Sun's energy and releases it as infrared radiation. Certain atmospheric gases, including CO₂, methane and nitrous oxide, absorb infrared radiation at specific wavelengths and re-emit it. In this way, they influence how much energy can escape from the Earth system.

As the concentration of these gases increases, the Earth finds it more difficult to lose energy to space at its initial temperatures. The system therefore tends to warm until it reaches a new energy balance, partly through changes in the temperature of the surface and atmosphere.

CO₂ does not generate heat like a flame, nor does it create a physical barrier that prevents all heat from escaping. Instead, it changes the pathway through which energy is transferred and dissipated. This distinction is more than a matter of terminology: it helps explain why the greenhouse effect is a measurable physical phenomenon and why rising greenhouse gas concentrations have consequences for the climate.

Furthermore, warming does not manifest itself solely as an increase in average temperatures. It changes the likelihood and intensity of various phenomena, including heatwaves, droughts, extreme rainfall and conditions conducive to wildfires. The effects vary from region to region and interact with local factors such as land use, water availability and the vulnerability of communities.

Not every extreme event can automatically be attributed to climate change. Determining the role of global warming in a specific event requires attribution studies. The overall picture, however, is clear: rising global temperatures change the conditions in which many climate-related risks develop.

Between 2024 and 2025, the global average concentration of CO₂ increased by 2.8 ppm. This was lower than the exceptional increase recorded between 2023 and 2024, when concentrations rose by 3.6 ppm. The figure might seem encouraging, but interpreting it as evidence that the problem is easing would be misleading.

The increase in 2025 remained substantial and was slightly higher than the average annual growth rate recorded over the 2016–2025 decade. Above all, atmospheric concentrations reached a new record high.

According to the WMO, the slowdown compared with the previous year was probably partly due to the recovery of land carbon sinks and a decrease in carbon emissions from wildfires in 2025, following the conditions associated with the strong El Niño of 2023–2024. [El Niño is a phase of a natural climate phenomenon that changes sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and influences weather conditions across many regions of the world. Its effects can contribute to hot and dry conditions that affect vegetation, wildfires and the ability of terrestrial ecosystems to absorb carbon.](https://blog.treedom.net/en/it/non-%C3%A8-colpa-di-el-ni%C3%B1o)

The rate at which atmospheric CO₂ increases depends not only on human emissions, but also on how the oceans and land respond. In a year when ecosystems absorb a larger share of the carbon emitted, the increase in atmospheric concentrations may slow. Under the opposite conditions, it may accelerate.   
Natural variability does not, however, remove responsibility for human-caused emissions. It explains why the increase can fluctuate from one year to the next, not why the problem would have disappeared.

The report highlights precisely this interaction: the climate affects the ability of ecosystems to absorb carbon, while rising greenhouse gas concentrations fuel warming that can put those same ecosystems under pressure. This feedback relationship makes reducing emissions even more urgent.

## **Where does the CO₂ we emit end up?**

*Indonesian residents have taken to social media to share images of the unusually-colored sky. @WeinArifin/Twitter*

Not all the CO₂ emitted by human activities remains in the atmosphere. Some is absorbed by the oceans and some by terrestrial ecosystems. This process is essential to understanding the carbon cycle and the role that forests, soils and other natural environments play in regulating the climate.

According to the WMO report, during the 2015–2024 period, around 50% of human-caused CO₂ emissions accumulated in the atmosphere, while approximately 29% was absorbed by the oceans and 21% by terrestrial ecosystems.

These percentages are estimates for a specific period: they do not represent a fixed breakdown, nor do they guarantee that absorption capacity will remain constant over time. Rather, they demonstrate the importance of natural systems and how much the atmospheric carbon balance depends on their response.

[The oceans absorb CO₂ through exchanges with the atmosphere and through physical, chemical and biological processes](https://blog.treedom.net/en/trees-and-oceans-extraordinary-allies-in-the-hunt-for-co). This absorption, however, has consequences: some of the dissolved CO₂ reacts with water, forming compounds that alter marine chemistry and contribute to ocean acidification. Absorption therefore comes at an ecological cost.

[On land, CO₂ is absorbed through photosynthesis](https://blog.treedom.net/en/photosynthesis)and carbon is transferred to vegetation, roots, wood, leaf litter and soil. The amount actually stored depends on ecosystem conditions, the species present, water availability, soil fertility, temperature and natural or human-caused disturbances.

Forests, mangroves, peatlands, grasslands and other ecosystems can play important roles in the carbon cycle, but they are not interchangeable. They differ in structure, biodiversity, the amount of carbon they store, their rates of accumulation and their vulnerability. Protecting and restoring them requires an understanding of these differences, rather than reducing every natural environment to a simple quantity of CO₂ absorbed. 

## **Not just CO₂**

The scale and nature of the problem make a strategy based solely on carbon removal insufficient. The CO₂ produced by burning fossil fuels comes from geological reserves that are rapidly transferred into the atmosphere. Terrestrial ecosystems can absorb some of it, but they have physical, ecological and territorial limits. Furthermore, the carbon stored in vegetation is exposed to risks that do not affect carbon that remains stably stored underground in the same way.

Climate action must therefore go hand in hand with reducing emissions at their source: transforming energy systems, improving efficiency, electrifying where appropriate, reducing industrial emissions, changing transport systems, curbing deforestation, and taking action across agricultural and food systems. The relative importance of individual measures varies by sector and context, but the principle is universal: preventing greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere takes priority over attempting to remove them afterwards.

- The central role of carbon dioxide should not make us overlook other greenhouse gases. As mentioned above, the WMO report also records new highs for methane and nitrous oxide, two gases with different sources, atmospheric lifetimes and characteristics.
- Methane is present in the atmosphere in much smaller quantities than CO₂, but it has a significant warming effect. Its sources include human activities — such as livestock farming, rice cultivation, fossil fuel extraction and transport, landfills and biomass burning — as well as natural sources, including wetlands. The relative contribution of these sources can vary over time and from one region to another. The report indicates that human activities account for around 65% of methane emissions, while the remaining 35% comes from natural sources. Methane has a shorter atmospheric lifetime than CO₂, so reducing methane emissions can deliver climate benefits relatively quickly. This does not remove the need to cut CO₂ emissions as well: CO₂ continues to accumulate and influences the climate over much longer periods.
- Nitrous oxide is associated with natural processes in soil and water, but also with the use of nitrogen fertilisers, certain agricultural activities and industrial processes. It is a powerful, long-lived greenhouse gas. Reducing its emissions requires targeted measures, such as more efficient nitrogen management in agriculture and controls on industrial sources.

## **COP31: from diagnosis to decisions**

The WMO report is published at a particularly significant moment. From 9 to 20 November 2026, Antalya will host COP31, the thirty-first Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Climate conferences are forums for negotiation where governments and other parties seek to agree on commitments, rules and instruments for cooperation. Their effectiveness depends on the ability to translate agreements into national policies, investments, changes to production systems and verifiable results.

The new report does not prescribe a single policy measure, nor can it determine on its own what decisions will be taken at COP31. It does, however, provide a scientific framework for assessing the urgency and direction of climate action: concentrations of the main greenhouse gases continue to rise, and the climate system responds to the accumulation of these gases over time.

From this perspective, several priorities are difficult to ignore.

The first is to reduce emissions through credible, verifiable targets. The second is to regenerate ecosystems that store carbon and support biodiversity, preventing their degradation from worsening the atmospheric carbon balance. The third is to strengthen societies' ability to adapt to climate impacts that are already underway. The fourth is to support research and monitoring systems so that decisions are based on comparable, up-to-date data.

## **The problem is global, so the solutions must be global too**

**<https://blog.treedom.net/en/mega-make-earth-great-again>**

A new atmospheric record may seem like a statistic far removed from everyday life. In reality, it describes a process that connects energy choices, patterns of production and consumption, land use and the condition of ecosystems. It is not possible to attribute every individual weather event to a single cause, but it is possible to measure the increase in greenhouse gases and understand the role they play in global warming.

For the same reason, relying on a single solution is not enough. Emissions reductions, ecosystem protection, the restoration of degraded areas and adaptation to climate impacts are complementary parts of a strategy, not alternatives to one another. Above all, this is a global issue. In this sense, [our MEGA — Make Earth Great Again campaign gets to the heart of the matter.](https://blog.treedom.net/en/mega-make-earth-great-again)

Trees have a real role to play in this picture: they absorb CO₂ through photosynthesis, store carbon in their biomass and, under certain conditions, contribute to carbon accumulation in the soil. Their contribution naturally depends on the quality of the interventions, the ability of ecosystems to endure over time and whether actual results can be measured. Presenting trees as a solution capable of offsetting any and all emissions would be scientifically inaccurate; ignoring the value of nature in climate mitigation and adaptation would be equally short-sighted.

The starting point remains the WMO's finding: in 2025, the global average concentration of CO₂ reached 426.8 ppm, while methane and nitrous oxide also reached new highs. A smaller annual increase than the exceptional rise recorded the previous year does not change the overall picture: concentrations continue to climb.

As COP31 approaches, the question is not only how to absorb some of the carbon we have already released into the atmosphere. It is above all how to stop adding ever-greater amounts, while protecting the natural systems on which part of our ability to address climate change depends.

Climate policies and practical initiatives by businesses, institutions and citizens should be assessed against this balance: reducing emissions, regenerating ecosystems and taking action on a global scale.

 

**Sources and further reading**

- **World Meteorological Organization (WMO)**, *Greenhouse Gas Bulletin No. 22 – The State of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere, Based on Global Observations through 2025*, 27 October 2026. [Official report and press release](https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/greenhouse-gas-levels-once-again-reach-record-high).
- **United Nations**, [COP31: 9–20 November 2026, Antalya, Türkiye](https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop31).
- **UN Web TV**, [WMO press conference on the greenhouse gas report and the state of the climate ahead of COP31](https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1y/k1ywcvn57q), 27 October 2026.
- **Treedom**, [How does CO₂ actually warm the Earth?](https://blog.treedom.net/it/co2).
- **Treedom**, [Photosynthesis: chemistry, biology and our future](https://blog.treedom.net/it/fotosintesi-clorofilliana-tra-chimica-biologia-e-il-nostro-futuro).

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