The new data shows CO2 still increasing for the seventh consecutive year

According to data collected by scientists, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by the second highest annual rise in the past six decades. 

Concentrations of the gas have increased every year, reflecting our burning of fossil fuels. As recently as the 1990s, the average annual growth rate was about 1.5ppm, but in the past decade that has accelerated to 2.2ppm, and is now even higher. This brings the threshold of 450ppm closer sooner than had been anticipated. 

This is the seventh consecutive year in which steep increases in ppm have been recorded, well above the previous average, and the fifth year since the 400ppm threshold was breached in 2014. In 2016, the highest annual jump in the series so far was recorded, from 404.1 in 2015 to 407.66 in 2016. 

Only in May this year atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas were 414.8 parts per million. 

The data come from Mauna Loa in the Hawaii and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Alaska, which has also made complementary independent measurements of greenhouse gas concentrations since the 1970s. 

Ralph Keeling of the Scripps Institute said: «The CO2growth rate is still very high, the increase from last May was well above the average for the past decade» 

The senior scientist of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pieter Tans, said: «It is critically important to have these accurate long-term measurements of CO2 in order to understand how quickly fossil fuels are changing our climate. These are measurements of the real atmosphere, and do not depend on any models, but they help us verify climate model projections, which if anything have underestimated the rapid pace of climate change being observed».