Scientists reveal an alarming rate of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere as it became the highest ever recorded in the past 56 years. These measurements were obtained from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii as carbon dioxide levels spiked to three parts per million in the past 12 months.

Now, scientists suggest that this rapid increase in carbon dioxide is due to the El Niño weather event and human activities. 

The Mauna Loa is also the world's oldest atmospheric measurement station that has been recording weather and climate since the late 1950s. It is also considered to be the most important global weather monitoring network, which monitors this recent rise and fall of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for more than a year.

Now scientists are urging that this data can add more pressure for global leaders to sign and finally formalize the Paris Climate Agreement.

In the last 10 years, the average increase of carbon dioxide at the Hawaiian station has been 2 ppm however, last 2015, it increased to 3.05 ppm and in just last month, the level even increased more at an alarming 3.76 ppm.

Scientists believe that this event is triggered by El Niño which played a key role on this rise, and according to the World Meteorological Organization, the last biggest spike in carbon was last 1998 which is apparently an El Niño year.

This weather event brings about heat waves, rising temperatures and drought to many tropical regions in 2015, leading to forest fires in Indonesia and other areas that expelled massive amounts of stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

According to WMO's Petteri Taalas, this sort of impact of El Niño on carbon dioxide is a natural phenomenon and occurs for a short time. However, this increase in carbon is greatly driven by greenhouse gas emissions that are caused by human activities, which can be controlled and cut down.

These latest measurements represent the carbon dioxide levels from January 2015 to February 2016 where it reached a 400 ppm level. According to the U.S. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration, past atmospheric levels were only at 280 ppm.

According to lead scientist, Pieter Tans of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, these carbon dioxide levels are increasing faster than ever before in more than 100,000 years where this spike has been explosive compared to natural processes.

Scientists believe that these latest figures should be able to encourage global leaders to make crucial progress on the Paris Climate Agreement, where a signing ceremony for world leaders will be held in New York in April for the treaty to become operational this year.