No. 141

Researchers find record rise in carbon emissions

New research has found global carbon emissions surged by a record amount in 2010 after falling during the international financial crisis.

The Global Carbon Project published its yearly analysis of carbon dioxide emissions in the journal Nature Climate Change today.

It found global carbon dioxide emissions increased by a record 5.9 per cent in 2010.

According to the report, overall atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is currently at its highest level in 800,000 years.

Mike Raupach from the CSIRO helped write this year's report and says he and other scientists were shocked by the findings.

"This was a very large number, an unexpectedly high increase, much greater than the average increase through the decade of the 2000s which has been about 3 per cent, and it cancels out a downturn in emissions the year before."

"The reality that we are not succeeding in producing any downturn in global emissions adds to the urgency of undertaking that task," he said.

Dr Raupach says the world is more than half way to reaching a trillion tonnes of carbon in the atmosphere - a figure regarded as being the threshold for dangerous climate change.

"We have about 35 to 40 years to go, before we hit [the] limit of a total of 1 trillion tonnes," he said.

Dr Raupach hopes the findings will add some pressure to the world climate talks underway in Durban, South Africa.

Read more |  ABC, 05.12.11

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