Other potent greenhouse gases such as methane also recorded new highs, according to the WMO report.

BBC: Carbon emissions are 'too high' to curb climate change

Rotting waste, meanwhile, produces methane, one of the more potent greenhouse gases, and thus contributes to global warming.

ECONOMIST: The waste industry

Most involve cutting emissions not of CO2 but of more potent greenhouse gases.

ECONOMIST: Selling hot air

Since both of these chemicals are more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide, this effect, too, should help combat global warming.

ECONOMIST: Biochar could enrich soils and cut greenhouse gases as well

Other potent greenhouse gases such as methane also reached record highs.

BBC: Greenhouse gases hit record high

But last year a UN report warned that HFCs are far more potent greenhouse gases than CO2 and so their use could hamper efforts to tackle climate change.

BBC: Ghana bans second-hand fridges

But the EPA estimates that all the sources of methane combined still account for only 9 percent of greenhouse gases, even taking into account methane's more potent heat-trapping.

NPR: EPA Methane Report Further Divides Fracking Camps