Record CO2 Emissions Projected For 2012

The 2.6 per cent rise projected for 2012 means global emissions from burning fossil fuel are 58 per cent above 1990 levels, the baseline year for the Kyoto Protocol.

The amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide spewed annually into the atmosphere by human activities is expected to reach a record high by the end of this year, according to new figures released by the Global Carbon Project.

Researchers there, including scientists at Britain’s Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, project a 2.6 percent rise in mean global emissions from burning fossil fuels during 2012.

Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers say significant emission cuts are needed by 2020 to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius as a feasible goal.

But many others have said that it is already too late to prevent exceeding that goal, no matter what is done with emissions.

World delegates in the second week of the U.N. climate conference in Doha, Qatar, appear to be failing to reach any significant consensus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“If we don’t completely rethink and radically accelerate the plans to reverse global warming, we will, in all likelihood, create catastrophic climate change in our lifetime,” warned Global Carbon Project head Josep Canadell.

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