Greenhouse gas levels rise at fastest rates since 1984

A surge in atmospheric CO2 saw levels of greenhouse gases reach record levels in 2013, the BBC reports, citing new figures.

Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere between 2012 and 2013 grew at their fastest rate since 1984.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has said that it highlights the need for a global climate treaty.

But the UK's energy secretary Ed Davey said any such agreement might not contain legally binding emissions cuts, as has been previously envisaged.

The WMO's annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin doesn't measure emissions from power station smokestacks but instead records how much of the warming gases remain in the atmosphere after the complex interactions that take place between the air, the land and the oceans.

About half of all emissions are taken up by the seas, trees and living things.

According to the bulletin, the globally averaged amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 396 parts per million (ppm) in 2013, an increase of almost 3ppm over the previous year.

"The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin shows that, far from falling, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere actually increased last year at the fastest rate for nearly 30 years," said Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the WMO.

Read more on the BBC website.