Carbon emissions climbing at alarming rate: study*

WASHINGTON, May 21 (AFP) May 22, 2007

Carbon emissions grew an alarming three times faster between 2000-2004
than in the 1990s worldwide, as wealthy and developing nations showed no
progress in managing the greenhouse gas, a US study said Monday.

Carbon emissions grew at a 3.1 percent annual rate between 2000-2004,
compared to 1.1 percent per year in the previous decade, according to
the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The rise is a reversal of a long-term trend toward greater energy
efficiency and reduction in the use of carbon fuels, the researchers said.

"No region is decarbonising its energy supply," said the study published
in the scientific journal's May 21-25 edition.

"Despite the scientific consensus that carbon emissions are affecting
the world's climate, we are not seeing evidence of progress in managing
those emissions in either the developed or developing countries," said
study co-author Chris Field.

"In many parts of the world, we are going backwards," said Field,
director of the Carnegie Institution's global ecology department.

Moreover, the study said, the growth of global emissions in the 2000s
was faster than in the highest scenarios by the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations' scientific authority on
global warming.

The accelerating rate of carbon dioxide emmissions is largely due to
rising energy consumption and use of carbon to produce it, in tandem
with increasing population and per-capita gross domestic product, the
study said.

The accelaration of carbon emissions was biggest in developing nations
with booming economies such as China, where the rise reflects the growth
in per capita GDP, the study said.

Developing nations contribute about 40 percent of total emissions, but
they were responsible for a large majority of the growth in carbon
dioxide emissions between 2000-2004, the study said.

In 2004, nearly three-quarters of the growth in emissions arose from the
world's developing and least developed economies, which make up 80
percent of the global population.

Developed nations, including the former Soviet Union, contributed some
60 percent to the total emissions, the study said. The world' wealthiest
nations account for 77 percent of total emissions since the industrial
revolution.