SOARING carbon dioxide (CO2) levels raised greenhouse gases to a new record high last year, while oceans have become more acidic than ever, meteorologists warned today.

“We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels,” said World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) head Michel Jarraud.

“We must reverse this trend by cutting CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases across the board,” Mr Jarraud said.

“We are running out of time.”

The WMO said carbon dioxide rose to global concentrations of 396 parts per million last year, the biggest year-on-year change in three decades.

Concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide broke fresh records in 2013.

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

A quarter of all emissions are absorbed by the oceans, while another quarter are sucked into the biosphere.

But CO2 remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in the oceans for even longer.

Gases stored in the oceans also have “far-reaching impacts” WMO warned, since more CO2 leads to increased acidity, altering the ocean ecosystem.

Every day, the world’s oceans absorb some 8.8 lbs of CO2 per person per day and things will only get worse, Mr Jarraud said.

“Past, present and future CO2 emissions will have a cumulative impact,” he said, adding that “the laws of physics are non-negotiable.”