The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world’s atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas that is heating the planet.

“It’s really significant to see the pace of the increase over the first four months of this year, which is also a record,” said Ralph Keeling, director of the CO2 Program at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

In June, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that global concentration of CO2 had hit 421ppm, a 50% increase on pre-industrial times and the highest in millions of years.

The rapid rise in the heat-trapping gas threatens the world with disastrous climate breakdown in the form of severe heatwaves, floods, droughts and wildfires.

Recent research has suggested that CO2 levels were last this high around 14m years ago, causing a climate that would appear alien to people alive today.

The previous record annual rise in CO2 took place in 2016, amid another El Niño event, which temporarily causes a spike in global temperatures.

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