Stats: Global Carbon Project - CO2 emissions rising faster since 2000

Global Carbon Project research finds rate of increase in GHG emissions is rising, not falling.

New research from the Global Carbon Project says that emissions are now rising at 2.5% per year, while they were previously rising by less than 1% annually up to the year 2000.

7.9 billion tonnes (gigatonnes, Gt) of carbon passed into the atmosphere in 2005.
In 2000, the figure was 6.8Gt.

"At these rates, it certainly sounds like we'll end up towards the high end of the emission scenarios considered by the IPCC," commented Myles Allen from Oxford University, one of Britain's leading climate modellers. The "high end" of IPCC projections implies a rise in global temperature approaching 5.8C between 1990 and the end of this century.

Corinne Le Quere, of the Global Carbon Project said "Improvements that have been made in the last 30 years appear to be stalling ... We are going to need a real decrease in emissions."

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The Global Carbon Project (GCP) was established in 2001. The scientific goal of the project is to develop a complete picture of the global carbon cycle, including both its biophysical and human dimensions together with the interactions and feedbacks between them. The Global Carbon Project is responding to this challenge through a shared partnership between the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and Diversitas. This partnership constitutes the Earth Systems Science Partnership (ESSP).

Link: GCP home
Link: GCP scientific framework document