CARBON dioxide emissions rose at their fastest-ever rate in 2024 due to record fossil fuel burning, deforestation and wildfires, a Met Office study warned today.

Concentrations of the greenhouse gas were 26 per cent higher than predicted last year — reaching 3.58 parts per million (ppm) at Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

The Met Office has conducted measurements on the island since 1958 and said the rate of increase is incompatible with staying below 1.5°C of global warming.

The El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific drove up rates last year, with rises between 2024 and 2025 expected be less extreme than last year, at around 2.26ppm.

But even this slower rise will be too fast to stay on track for pathways laid out by the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change, according to which temperatures must remain below 1.5°C of warming from pre-industrial levels with no or little overshoot, the Met Office warned.