Global carbon emissions up 29% since 2000 and still rising
November 18, 2009 at 4:00 pm by Katie M.
Yesterday, the Nature Geoscience Journal released a report saying that global carbon emission levels are still rising – 29% since 2000 – and they continue to rise 2-3% each year.
These findings that come from the researchers at the Global Carbon Project who report that the cause of the steadily rising carbon levels is due to the lack of absorption by the Earth’s natural carbon sinks. They believe there is a decrease in the efficiency of the natural land and sea carbon sinks.
Science Daily reports that, despite the economic hard times, global CO2 emissions are still on the rise. “The use of coal as a fuel has now surpassed oil and developing countries now emit more greenhouse gases than developed countries — with a quarter of their growth in emissions accounted for by increased trade with the West.”
Lead author Prof Corinne Le Quéré of the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the British Antarctic Survey said:
“The only way to control climate change is through a drastic reduction in global CO2 emissions. The Earth’s carbon sinks are complex and there are some gaps in our understanding, particularly in our ability to link human-induced CO2 emissions to atmospheric CO2 concentrations on a year-to-year basis. But, if we can reduce the uncertainty about the carbon sinks, our data could be used to verify the effectiveness of climate mitigations policies.”
Read more about the findings in this Science Daily article.
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