Humans' CO2 Emissions Rise 2% Despite Global Financial Crisis

Japan's National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES) announced on November 18, 2009, in an electronic version of Nature Geoscience, that despite the economic impact of global financial crisis, carbon gas emissions by human activities rose two percent in 2008 to all-time high of 1.3 tons per capita per year.

Written by scientists participating in Global Carbon Project, the report indicates rising carbon emissions from fossil fuel consumption due to increased use of coal, while emissions from petroleum consumption and deforestation have slightly decreased.

"The current increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is closely linked to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion have increased by 41% from the 1990 level, tracing close to the worst-case scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)," said Dr. Mike Raupach, one of the authors of the report.

Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal at NIES, Executive Director of Global Carbon Project, also pointed out that the findings indicate that the rising CO2 levels continue to outpace natural carbon sinks, which play an important role in buffering the impact of rising emissions from human activities.

Carbon Budget 2008
http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/
08/files/GCP2009_CarbonBudget2008.pdf

Posted: 2010/03/25 06:00:15 AM