Paris — Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere reached record highs in 2023, the United Nations warned on Monday, saying countries are falling “miles short” of what’s needed to curb devastating global warming.

Levels of the three main greenhouse gases — heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — all increased yet again last year, said the World Meteorological Organization, the U.N.’s weather and climate agency.

Carbon dioxide was accumulating in the atmosphere faster than ever, up more than 10 percent in two decades, it added.

And a separate U.N. report found that barely a dent is being made in the 43 percent emissions cut needed by 2030 to avert the worst of global warming.

Action as it stands would only lead to a 2.6 percent reduction this decade from 2019 levels.

“The report’s findings are stark but not surprising — current national climate plans fall miles short of what’s needed to stop global heating from crippling every economy and wrecking billions of lives and livelihoods across every country,” said U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell.

The two reports come just weeks before the United Nations COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan and as nations prepare to submit updated national climate plans in early 2025.

“Bolder” plans to slash the pollution that drives warming will now have to be drawn up, Stiell said, calling for the end of “the era of inadequacy.”

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries said they would cap global warming at “well below” two degrees Celsius above average levels measured between 1850 and 1900 — and 1.5C if possible.

But so far, their actions have failed to meet that challenge.

Existing national commitments would see 51.5 billion tons of CO2 and its equivalent in other greenhouse gases emitted in 2030 — levels that would “guarantee a human and economic trainwreck for every country, without exception,” Stiell said.

As long as emissions continue, greenhouse gases will keep accumulating in the atmosphere, raising global temperatures, WMO said.

Last year, global temperatures on land and sea were the highest in records dating as far back as 1850, it added.

WMO chief Celeste Saulo said the world was “clearly off track” to meet the Paris Agreement goal, adding that record greenhouse gas concentrations “should set alarm bells ringing among decision-makers.”

“CO2 is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than at any time during human existence,” the report said, adding that the current atmospheric CO2 level was 51 percent above that of the pre-industrial era.

The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was three to five million years ago, when the temperature was two to three degrees Centigrade warmer and the sea level was 65 feet higher than now, it said.

Given how long CO2 lasts in the atmosphere, current temperature levels will continue for decades, even if emissions rapidly shrink to net zero.

In 2023, CO2 concentrations were at 420 parts per million (ppm), methane at 1,934 parts per billion, and nitrous oxide at 336 parts per billion.

CO2 accounts for about 64 percent of the warming effect on the climate.

Its annual increase of 2.3 ppm marked the 12th consecutive year with an increase greater than two ppm — a streak caused by “historically large fossil fuel CO2 emissions in the 2010s and 2020s,” the report said.

Just under half of CO2 emissions remain in the atmosphere, while the rest are absorbed by the ocean and land ecosystems.

Climate change itself could soon “cause ecosystems to become larger sources of greenhouse gases,” WMO deputy chief Ko Barret warned.

“Wildfires could release more carbon emissions into the atmosphere, whilst the warmer ocean might absorb less CO2. Consequently, more CO2 could stay in the atmosphere to accelerate global warming.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed Monday to stay in office despite his gamble of snap elections backfiring, with his party’s ruling coalition falling short of a majority for the first time since 2009.

Ishiba called Sunday’s election days after taking office on October 1, but voters angry at a slush fund scandal punished his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed Japan almost non-stop since 1955.

Ishiba, 67, insisted on Monday he was staying put, saying he would not allow a “political vacuum” in the world’s fourth-biggest economy.

He said the biggest election factor was “people’s suspicion, mistrust and anger” after the party scandal, which helped sink his predecessor, Fumio Kishida.

“I will enact fundamental reform regarding the issue of money and politics,” Ishiba told reporters.

The yen hit a three-month low, sliding more than one percent against the dollar.

According to projections by national broadcaster NHK and other media, the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito missed Ishiba’s stated goal of winning 233 seats – a majority in the 456-member lower house.

The LDP won 191 seats, down from 259 at the last election in 2021, according to NHK’s tallies. Official results were yet to be published.

“As long as our own lives don’t improve, I think everyone has given up on the idea that we can expect anything from politicians,” restaurant worker Masakazu Ikeuchi, 44, told AFP on Monday in rainy Tokyo.

On Monday, the LDP’s election committee chief, former premier Junichiro Koizumi’s son Shinjiro Koizumi, resigned to “take responsibility” for the outcome.

The most likely next step is Ishiba seeking to head a minority government, with the divided opposition probably incapable of forming a coalition of their own, analysts said.

Ishiba, who has 30 days to form a government, said Monday he was not considering a broader coalition “at this point.”

A minority government would likely slow down the parliamentary process as Japan confronts a host of challenges from a falling population to a tense regional security environment.

It could also push figures within the LDP to try to unseat Ishiba.

“Lawmakers aligned with (former prime minister Shinzo) Abe were cold-shouldered under Ishiba, so they could potentially pounce on the opportunity to take their revenge,” Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo, told AFP.

“But at the same time, with the number of LDP seats reduced so much, they might take the high road and support Ishiba for now, thinking it’s not the time for infighting,” he said.  

A big winner was former premier Yoshihiko Noda’s opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), which increased its projected seat tally to 148 from 96 at the last election.

Noda in the campaign pounced on media reports that the LDP was financially supporting district offices headed by figures caught up in the slush fund scandal.

“Voters chose which party would be the best fit to push for political reforms,” Noda said late Sunday, adding that the “LDP-Komeito administration cannot continue”.

Mirroring elections elsewhere, fringe parties did well, with Reiwa Shinsengumi, founded by a former actor, tripling its seats to nine after promising to abolish the sales tax and boost pensions.

The anti-immigration and traditionalist Conservative Party of Japan, established in 2023 by nationalist writer Naoki Hyakuta, won its first three seats.

The number of women lawmakers, meanwhile, reached a record high of 73, according to NHK, but they still make up less than 16 percent of the legislature.

“I think the outcome was a result of people across Japan wanting to change the current situation,” said voter Takako Sasaki, 44.

Ishiba said before the election that he was planning a new stimulus packaging to ease the pain of rising prices, another contributor to Kishida’s unpopularity.

Another big area of spending is the military, with Kishida having pledged to double defense spending and boost U.S. military ties as a counter to China.

Ishiba has backed the creation of a regional military alliance along the lines of NATO to counter China, although he has cautioned it would “not happen overnight”.

China’s foreign ministry said Monday it wanted a “constructive and stable China-Japan relationship that meets the requirements of the new era”.

The driver who struck and killed a famous grizzly bear south of Grand Teton National Park earlier this week was not speeding and the bear’s death was an accident, law enforcement officers said Friday.

The death of grizzly No. 399 on Tuesday night in the Snake River Canyon south of Jackson saddened tourists, wildlife biologists and amateur and professional photographers who for years studied and captured images of the bear and her many cubs and followed her comings and goings on social media sites.

“The bear stepped right out into the road,” Lincoln County Sheriff’s Patrol Lt. John Stetzenbach told the Jackson Hole News & Guide on Friday. The driver “was unable to brake in time to avoid the bear, and the collision occurred.”

He said the collision “truly was an accident” and that the driver was not speeding or distracted and was not cited. The Subaru that hit the bear had to be towed from the scene, Stetzenbach said.

He declined to identify the driver, noting some online comments blamed the driver for the bear’s death.

At 28 years old, No. 399 was the oldest known reproducing female grizzly in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Each spring, wildlife enthusiasts eagerly awaited her emergence from her den to see how many cubs she had birthed over the winter – then quickly shared the news online. The bear had 18 known cubs in eight litters over the years, including a litter of four in 2020. She stood around 7 feet tall and weighed about 400 pounds.

Named for the identity tag attached to her ear by researchers, the grizzly was often seen near roads in Grand Teton, drawing crowds and creating traffic jams.

Wildlife photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen previously described the bear as his muse.

“Her intelligence, her behavior, her beauty,” Mangelsen told “60 Minutes” in 2018. “The fact that she’s had all these offspring. There’s not many bears that I know of that’s had three sets of triplets.”

Grand Teton bear biologist Justin Schwabedissen said Thursday that he believes her yearling cub, which was apparently not struck, will survive on its own.

Authorities said 49 grizzly bears died because of vehicle collisions between 2009 and 2023. 

Grizzly bears generally live to be around 25, though some in the wild have lived for over 35 years, according to the Fish & Wildlife Service.

Before 1800, there were an estimated 50,000 grizzly bears living throughout 18 western States, including Wyoming, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. By 1975, the population in the 48 contiguous states was reduced to between 700 to 800. 

After decades of being listed as threatened in the lower 48 states under the U.S.  Endangered Species Act, the population has grown to at least 1,923 grizzly bears in the 48 contiguous states.

contributed to this report.