Skip to content

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025

Can CO2 be ignored because it’s just a trace gas?


no

While carbon dioxide is a small part of the atmosphere, it has a large impact on climate as a greenhouse gas.

Nitrogen and oxygen make up around 99% of the atmosphere, but neither traps heat. Less than 0.05% of the atmosphere is made up of greenhouse gases, which do.

Without greenhouse gases, the Earth would be too cold to support most life, with average temperatures 2° F below zero (-18° C).

On the other hand, increasing greenhouse gas concentrations elevates temperatures. Human activities such as fossil fuel burning have raised CO2 concentrations from 280 parts per million in pre-industrial times to 424 parts per million in 2024. Over the same period, the planet has warmed 2° F (1.3° C) on average.

Climate scientists agree that emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are responsible for this observed rise in temperature despite their relatively low concentration in the atmosphere.

See a full discussion of this at Skeptical Science

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

Skeptical Science is a non-profit science education organization. Our goal is to remove a roadblock to climate action by building public resilience against climate misinformation. We achieve this by publishing debunking of climate myths as well as providing resources for educators, communicators, scientists, and the general public. Skeptical Science was founded and is led by John Cook, a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne.

Learn More

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.