CARBON dioxide (CO2) is building up in the atmosphere too fast to limit global temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a key target of the 2015 Paris Agreement, a Met Office report has said.

Published today, the report predicted that by May, CO2 levels will peak to higher than any point in the past two million years.

The forecast said that the rise was entirely down to the burning of fossil fuels, the destruction of forests that would normally absorb CO2, and the production of cement.