Atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases and ocean levels reached new records in 2021, a U.S. government report announced Wednesday. It is further evidence that climate change is advancing in great strides and that planetary efforts to contain it are insufficient.

According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stood at 414.7 parts per million (ppm) in 2021, 2.3 ppm more than the previous year. The current level is "the highest in at least the last million years based on paleoclimatic records," says the annual climate status report.

" The data presented in this report is clear: we continue to see more compelling scientific evidence that climate change has global impacts and shows no signs of slowing down," Rick Spinrad, director of NOAA, said Wednesday.

Concentration had fallen between 2019 and 2020, when much of the world economy slowed sharply due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The resumption of activities, however, brought with it the worsening.

Ocean levels rose for the tenth year in a row, reaching a new record of 97 millimeters above the 1993 average when satellite measurements began. Last year was also one of the seven warmest on record since the mid-19th century -- all of them recorded since 2014, according to the report.

The number of tropical storms was also well above average last year, including Typhoon Rai, which killed nearly 400 people in the Philippines in December, and Ida, which swept the Caribbean before becoming the second strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. state of Louisiana. The first was Katrina in 2005.

The findings come three months before the UN climate conference, COP27, an annual event to be held this year in Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian city in the Sinai Peninsula. The aim of the event should be to put into practice the promises made at last year's meeting in Glasgow, when countries made stronger commitments to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels.

It is estimated that current promises leave the world on a trajectory to 2.1 degrees Celsius, plus the 0.6 degree may be the difference between a cataclysm and the relative well-being of future generations. And the U.S. itself plays a key role in this process, as the largest historical polluters: more than a quarter of all polluting gases emitted since the Industrial Revolution have been released by the US.

Today the country is the second largest polluter, accounting for about 12% of the total planetarium. The leadership occupied by China, with 27%.

President Joe Biden is trying to reposition the U.S. in climate diplomacy, giving the country an unprecedented role on the environmental agenda. Shortly after taking office, he promised to cut U.S. emissions in half by the end of the decade and zero them by 2050, but Congress blocked for months his plan to fund the transition.

The plan was approved in a much-reduced version in the middle of the month, in the biggest Legislative victory for the president in his 18 months in office. The proposal will inject $437 billion in climate action and programs aimed at increasing The United States' energy efficiency, helping the country meet its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets -- it is estimated that the country will now be able to reduce emissions by up to 40 percent by the end of the decade,  compared to 2005.