World's carbon emissions on record-breaking pace for 2013

Carbon emissions will increase again this year, reaching a record 36 billion tons, figures released in Britain by the Global Carbon Project indicate. The 2.1 per cent rise projected for 2013 means global emissions from burning fossil fuel are 61 per cent above 1990 levels, the baseline year for the Kyoto Protocol, project researchers said in their report "Global Carbon Budget." The figures were released as international delegates met in Warsaw, Poland, this week at a U.N. climate conference. "Governments meeting in Warsaw this week need to agree on how to reverse this trend," lead report researcher Corinne Le Quere of Britain's University of East Anglia said. "Emissions must fall substantially and rapidly if we are to limit global climate change to below two degrees. Additional emissions every year cause further warming and climate change," she said in a university release Tuesday. The GCB report indicates the biggest contributors to fossil fuel emissions in 2012 were China (27 per cent), the United States (14 per cent), the European Union (10 per cent), and India (6 per cent). "We are communicating new science," Le Quere said. "Everyone can explore their own emissions, and compare them with their neighboring countries -- past, present, and future." The projected rise for 2013 comes after a similar rise of 2.2 per cent in 2012, the report's authors said.