Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing 10 times faster than at any point in the past 50,000 years, research in Scotland and the US has shown.

The study undertook a detailed chemical analysis of ancient Antarctic ice, revealing the stark findings and the effect of human emissions.

Oregon State University and the University of St Andrews led the research, which has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It provides an important understanding of abrupt climate change periods in Earth’s past and offers insight into the possible effects of climate change.

The rate of carbon dioxide increase was described as “unprecedented”, and driven by human emissions.

When the gas enters the atmosphere, it contributes to the warming of the climate due to the greenhouse effect.

In the past, the levels have fluctuated due to ice age cycles and other natural causes, but today they are rising because of human emissions, according to scientists.

“Studying the past teaches us how today is different. The rate of CO2 change today is unprecedented," said Dr Kathleen Wendt, an assistant professor in Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, and the study’s lead author.

“Our research identified the fastest rates of past natural CO2 rise ever observed, and the rate occurring today, largely driven by human emissions, is 10 times higher.”

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Ice that built up in the Antarctic over hundreds of thousands of years includes ancient atmospheric gases trapped in air bubbles.

Scientists used samples of ice, collected by drilling cores up to 3.2km deep to analyze the trace chemicals and build records of the climate in the past.

The US National Science Foundation supported the ice-core drilling and the chemical analysis used in the study.

Previous research showed that during the last ice age, which ended about 10,000 years ago, there were several periods where carbon dioxide levels appeared to jump much higher than the average.

However, the measurements were not detailed enough to reveal the full nature of the rapid changes, limiting scientists’ ability to understand what was occurring.

“You probably wouldn’t expect to see that in the dead of the last ice age," Dr Wendt said.

“But our interest was piqued, and we wanted to go back to those periods and conduct measurements in greater detail to find out what was happening.”