CO2 'rising three times faster than expected'
Pastor Dale Morgan
CO2 'rising three times faster than expected'*
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
Last Updated: 2:39am BST 04/06/2007
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Global emissions of carbon dioxide are increasing three times faster
than scientists previously thought, with the bulk of the rise coming
from developing countries, an authoritative study has found.
People with buckets in south west China: CO2 'rising three times faster
than expected'
People wait to collect water after a drought hit part of south west
China. The impact of global warming is clearer each day
The increase in emissions of the gases responsible for global warming
suggests that the effects of climate change to come in this century
could be even worse than United Nations scientists have predicted.
The report, by leading universities and institutes on both sides of the
Atlantic, will create renewed pressure on G8 leaders who are meeting
this week in Heiligendamm, on Germany's Baltic coast.
Top of the agenda are proposals by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor,
to halve global emissions by 2050.
There were violent clashes at the weekend in the nearby city of Rostock
between police and protesters during a march by tens of thousands
demonstrating about the summit.
The latest study was written by scientists from the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in the United States, the University of East Anglia and the
British Antarctic Survey, as well as institutes in France and Australia.
It shows that carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing by three per
cent a year this decade, compared to a 1.1 per cent a year rise in the
1990s. Three quarters of this rise came from developing countries, with
a particularly rapid increase in China.
The rise is much faster than even the most fossil-fuel intensive
scenario developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) during the 1990s.
It suggests that IPCC reports this year predicting reduced harvests,
dwindling water supplies, melting glaciers and the loss of species may
actually be understated.
It also comes after the International Energy Agency warned recently that
China was likely to overtake the United States as the biggest emitter of
greenhouse gases by 2010, rather than a decade later as previously assumed.
Both China and India are resisting any move that could curb their growth.
Meanwhile, President George W Bush indicated last week that he did not
favour the European Union's proposed approach of trying to limit the
temperature rise to below two degrees centigrade.
He still opposes the use of "cap and trade" financial mechanisms, which
Europeans believe are the only way of transferring clean technologies to
the developing world.
However, he has indicated a willingness to "lead" talks to devise a
post-Kyoto treaty that would include the world's top 15 polluters by the
time he leaves office in early 2009.
A report by leading aid charities, including Oxfam and Christian Aid,
will say today that between one billion and four billion people are
likely to suffer from drought and 250 million run short of food if
average temperatures rise by more than two degrees.
Antonio Hill, of Oxfam, said: "G8 counties face two obligations in this
year's summit - to keep global warming below two degrees and to start
helping poor countries to cope with harm already caused."