Concentrations of methane in the atmosphere are growing dangerously fast, scientists of a leading US environmental agency warned.

Methane emissions are powerful greenhouse gases – methane is at least 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

The scientific team of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggests that methane levels in the atmosphere raced past 1,900 parts per billion last year.

That is triple levels found before the industrial revolution.

Euan Nisbet, an Earth Scientist at Royal Holloway, University of London, in Egham, told Nature: “Methane levels are growing dangerously fast.”

He said the emissions are a “major threat” to the goal of limiting global warming.

At COP26 in Glasgow, more than 100 countries signed a pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.