CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate change

Daily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more than double last decade’s annual average

Just above this column on the weather page of the Guardian’s print edition is the daily atmospheric carbon dioxide readings from Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the acid test of how the world is succeeding in combatting climate change. A week before the 28th annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention opens in oil-rich Dubai, it makes depressing reading.

At the time of writing it is 422.36 parts per million. That is 5.06ppm more than the same day last year. That rise in 12 months is probably the largest ever recorded – more than double the last decade’s annual average.