C02 emissions

The study worsens even the gloomy predictions of the UN IPCC: currently we are emitting far more than first anticipated in the IPCC scenarios of the late 1990s. Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion has risen by an average 2.9% each year since 2000 while it was only 0.7% during the 1990s! From 1970 to 2000 the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere rose by about 1.5 ppm each year; since 2000 the annual rise increased to an average 1.9 ppm.

The study says that 3 processes have contributed to the increase of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere: growth in the world economy, heavy use of coal in China and also, a very worrying fact, the weakening of natural "sinks" such as forests, seas and soils.