While the amount of global attention to carbon emissions may be rising, it's only the volume of talk, apparently, and not the solutions. A group of scientists say 2010 was a record year for global carbon emissions.
The international group of scientists from the Global Carbon Project have said that global emissions rose the equivalent of 510 million metric tons of carbon to 9.14 billion tons in 2010, the most in records dating back to 1959. The data show a 5.9 percent rise in emissions, the largest since 2003, when they rose by six percent, the data show. Last year’s global emissions were 33.5 billion tons when converted to carbon dioxide, said the group.
Bloomberg (News - Alert) reported on the new data on the eve of the world's largest global climate event kicks off with delegates from 200 nations in Durban, South Africa.
The jump in emissions and the lack of real action is being blamed in part on the tenuous economic climate, which is drawing attention away from efforts to limit emissions. During 2008 and 2009, global emissions had declined somewhat.
“We’re going exactly in the wrong direction for limiting global warming,” said Corinne Le Quere, co-author of the Global Carbon Project’s report and a director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia in England. “Governments need to develop ways to boost the economy using renewable energy,” Le Quere told Bloomberg in a telephone interview.
The Global Carbon Project includes scientists from Europe, the U.S. and India.
Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Tracey's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Tammy Wolf
