With the volume of atmospheric carbon dioxide rising last year, levels are at their highest in the past 3.6 million years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The continuing worldwide health crisis hasn't done anything to reduce the root causes of global warming, the administration says.

Carbon levels reached new peaks despite a 7% cut in expected worldwide emissions prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, based on calculations by the administration.

The administration reported the world's atmospheric carbon average reached 413 parts per million in 2020 - an increase of 2.6 parts per million from 2019. The increase was the largest since the administration started measuring atmospheric CO2 levels 63 years ago.

The record atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases in March was almost 417 parts per million, according to data from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego.

"Human activity is driving climate change...If we want to lessen the worst impacts it's going to take a deliberate focus on cutting fossil fuel emissions to near zero," according to Colm Sweeney of the administration's global monitoring laboratory.

The UK's Meteorological Office says monthly CO2 concentrations are expected to reach their peak this year at almost 420 parts per million from 417.10 ppm in May.

When the administration started collecting CO2 measurements in the late 1950s, atmospheric carbon volumes were at about 315 parts per million.

Last week, the daily CO2 average was measured at 421 parts per million - the highest daily average calculated and the first time this figure has been so high.

CO2 levels in the earth's atmosphere will fluctuate in 2021 - falling as some is absorbed during the spring and summer by vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere before rising again in the autumn and winter, according to The Guardian.