UN: Carbon emissions still high

2008-11-17 21:13

Paris - Carbon emissions from the industrialised world in 2006 were higher than at the start of the century, mainly as a result of revived activity by former Soviet-bloc states, according to UN figures released on Monday.

Greenhouse gas emissions from 40 so-called Annex 1 countries under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change were almost unchanged in 2006, falling by 0.1% from 2005, the UNFCCC said.

From 2000 to 2006, though, emissions increased by 2.3%.

The annual inventory was published by the UNFCCC two weeks ahead of negotiations running in Poznan, Poland, from December 1-12 on commitments beyond 2012, when pledges under the treaty's Kyoto Protocol expire.

These figures do not take forestry, land use and conversion of land into account.

When this factor is incorporated, emissions by the "Annex 1" countries rose by 1.0% from 2000-2006 and by 0.4% from 2005-2006, the Bonn-based UNFCCC said.

Urgency underscored

"The figures clearly underscore the urgency for the UN negotiating process to make good progress in Poznan and move forward quickly in designing a new agreement to respond to the challenge of climate change," UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said in a press release.

The UNFCCC, the offshoot of the 1992 Rio Summit, has 192 members, but only industrialised parties, not developing states, are required to provide data to the greenhouse-gas inventory.

From the benchmark year of 1990 to 2006, emissions from Annex 1 countries fell by 4.7%, excluding land and forests, but this was largely as a result of the collapse of carbon-spewing industries in the former Soviet bloc.

Emissions from these so-called transition economies have fallen by 37.6% since 1990.

Since 2000, though, they have risen by 7.4%.

A total of 188 parties to the UNFCCC are also ratifiers of the Kyoto Protocol.

Thirty-nine of them, including the European Union, are industrialised parties that have signed up to targeted emissions curbs by 2012.

The big holdout is the United States, which abandoned the pact in 2001 although it remains a UNFCCC member.

Industrialised parties to Kyoto have promised an average cut of 5% over 1990 levels.

Kyoto benchmark

As of 2006, emissions from the Kyoto countries which reported their figures were around 17% below the benchmark, but also grew after 2000.

These figures "cannot be used as an indication of compliance," as they fail to take into account so-called flexibility mechanisms under Kyoto, the UNFCCC report said.

Under these provisions, countries can use three market mechanisms to offset their emissions by the treaty deadline.

The UNFCCC inventory shows that emissions by Spain in 2006 were 50.6% above 1990 levels and Portugal's were 40% higher. Australia was 28% above the 1990 benchmark, and the United States was 14%.

Scientists have sounded ever louder warnings about greenhouse gases, saying they trap heat from the Sun instead of letting it rebound into space. As a result, rising temperatures are inflicting perceptible changes to ice and snow and could badly damage the climate system in coming decades.

There is no expert consensus of what is considered a safe level, but many climatologists have pleaded for emissions to peak within the next 10 to 12 years and then fall afterwards to peg warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

Carbon dioxide, emitted especially by fossil fuels, accounted for 82.5% of all emissions in 2006, as compared with 79.% in 1990, the new figures showed.

- AFP