CO2 content in the air increases despite the corona time

Lisa Weidner studied German and sociology and completed several journalistic internships. She is a volunteer at Hubert Burda Media Verlag and writes for the "Meine Familie und Ich" magazine and on nutrition and health topics.

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The CO2 content of the air continues to climb, even if industry and traffic were cut back sharply in the Corona crisis. The Scientific Association of the German Climate Consortium (DKK) referred on Friday to new record values ​​that were also measured in Germany.

In March, the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) at the measuring station of the Federal Environment Agency on the Zugspitze rose to almost 418 ppm for the first time on a monthly average. The new high of 417.838 ppm is almost 3 ppm higher than in 2019. The concentration for April is also higher than in the previous year at 415.779 ppm.

The shutdown is nowhere near enough

Experts assume that global CO2 emissions from burning coal, oil and gas could fall by eight percent this year because the economy and transport have been cut back sharply. According to the Climate Consortium, the emissions so far this year are still so high that the CO2 content of the atmosphere has risen to the new record levels.

The climate researcher and chairman of the German Climate Consortium, Mojib Latif, announced: "The short break due to the shutdown is nowhere near enough to steer climate development on a path that corresponds to the Paris climate target." It is necessary to constantly reduce emissions by this magnitude in the coming years without paralyzing the economy.

Oceans and land regions can only absorb half of the CO2

The climate consortium also referred to data from the oldest CO2 measuring station Mauna Loa in Hawaii. The US weather agency NOAA reported an average value for April of 416.21 ppm, an increase of 2.88 ppm compared to 2019.

The fact that the CO2 content in the atmosphere continues to rise is due to the very long time carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere. Oceans and land regions currently absorb a little more than half of the CO2 emitted by mankind, the rest remains in the air for about a century. (lw / dpa)

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