CO2 Levels Reach Record High

CO2 levels in the Earth atmosphere reached the highest levels in 2016.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) data showed that CO2 hit 403.3 parts per million, up from 400ppm in 2015.

"It is the largest increase we have ever seen in the 30 years we have had this network," Dr Oksana Tarasova, chief of WMO's global atmosphere watch programme, told BBC News.

"The largest increase was in the previous El Niño, in 1997-1998 and it was 2.7ppm and now it is 3.3ppm, it is also 50% higher than the average of the last ten years."

The Greenhouse Gas bulletin report by WMO blamed "human activities and "a strong El Niño event" as the reason behind massive increase.

It is estimated that the Earth has not seen this high concentration of CO2 in last 800,000 years.