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UN says Earth reached record high levels of CO2 in 2013

A smoking power plant near the city of Grevenbroich in western Germany. The World Meteorological Organization said that global concentrations of carbon dioxide reached a record high in 2013. AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File

The U.N. weather agency says carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2013.

The World Meteorological Organization says the heat-trapping gas blamed for global warming was at global concentrations of 396 parts per million last year.

READ MORE: UN – CO2 pollution levels at annual record high

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That is an increase of 2.9 ppm from the previous year, which the Geneva-based agency reported Tuesday was the biggest year-to-year change in three decades.

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WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said “we know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme.”

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The report also finds the rate of ocean acidification, which comes from added carbon absorbed by oceans, “appears unprecedented at least over the last 300 million years.”

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