TORONTO – New figures released by the Global Carbon Project show that global emissions of carbon dioxide are set to reach a record high of 36 billion tonnes in 2013.
The Global Carbon Project research was co-led by researchers out of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of West Anglia in the UK.
Researchers found that carbon dioxide levels would rise 2.1 per cent – 61 per cent above the levels from 1990, the baseline year for the Kyoto Protocol.
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The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011.
The numbers were released as worldwide governments met in Warsaw, Poland for the Warsaw Climate Change Conference.
“Governments meeting in Warsaw this week need to agree on how to reverse this trend,” said Professor Corinne Le Quéré of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, who led the Global Carbon Project report.
“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.”
The rise in fossil fuel emissions in 2012 and 2013 was slower than the average of 2.7 per cent over the past 10 years.
Countries that saw a growth in C02 emissions were India, at 7.7 per cent, and China at 5.9 per cent.
The United States, one of the largest producers of CO2 emissions, saw a reduction of 3.7 per cent.
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