New York/CMEDIA: The creation of a global greenhouse gas monitoring mechanism has been unanimously approved by a hundred and ninety-three countries, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on Wednesday.
Combining observations from Earth and from space with modelling, the new Global Greenhouse Gas Watch aims to fill critical information gaps and builds on WMO’s experience in coordinating international collaboration on weather prediction.
The exchange of data will be both free and unrestricted in support of the Paris Agreement on climate change, said the agency.
According to WMO, between 1990 and 2021, the warming effect on our climate rose by nearly 50 percent from the main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
“We know from our measurements that greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels…We therefore need to undertake greenhouse gas monitoring…provide vital information and support for implementation of the Paris Agreement,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas reportedly said.
The UN weather agency’s decision on the generational challenge of climate change mitigation, is a historic step, said Lars Peter Riishojgaard, WMO Deputy Director for infrastructure and added,
“Internationally coordinated global greenhouse gas monitoring…will provide valuable, timely and authoritative information on greenhouse gas fluxes to the UNFCCC Parties (the UN climate change convention Secretariat), which will help them in their efforts to mitigate climate change.”
There was very strong support from the science community and private sector for the new monitoring project, said Riishojgaard
