A new study has revealed that global Carbon dioxide emissions are set to reach a record high of 40 billion tones in 2014.
According to the study in the UK by researchers at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia and the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the University of Exeter, there has been a 2.5 per cent projected rise in burning fossil fuels.
This latest annual update of the Global Carbon Budget shows that total future CO2 emissions cannot exceed 1,200 billion tonnes - for a likely 66 per cent chance of keeping average global warming under 2 degree Celsius (since pre-industrial times) and at the current rate of CO2 emissions, this 1,200 billion tonne CO2 'quota' would be used up in around 30 years. This means that there is just one generation before the safeguards to a 2 degree Celsius limit may be breached.
Prof Corinne Le Quere, Director of the Tyndall Centre at UEA, said that the human influence on climate change is clear. We need substantial and sustained reductions in CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels if we are to limit global climate change. We are nowhere near the commitments necessary to stay below 2 degree Celsius of climate change, a level that will be already challenging to manage for most countries around the world, even for rich nations.
The researchers said that CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuel are projected to rise by 2.5 per cent in 2014 - 65 per cent above 1990 levels, the reference year for the Kyoto Protocol, while China, the USA, the EU and India are the largest emitters - together accounting for 58 per cent of emissions.
It was also revealed that China's CO2 emissions grew by 4.2 per cent in 2013, the USA's grew by 2.9 per cent, and India's emissions grew by 5.1 per cent and the EU has decreased its emissions by 1.8 per cent, though it continues to export a third of its emissions to China and other producers through imported goods and services.
China's CO2 emissions per person overtook emissions in the EU for the first time in 2013 and the country's emissions are now larger than the US and EU combined. 16 per cent of China's emissions are for goods and services which are exported elsewhere, while emissions in the UK decreased by 2.6 per cent in 2013 caused by a decline in the use of coal and gas. However the UK exports a third of its emissions by consuming goods and services which are produced elsewhere.
It was also found that CO2 emissions are caused primarily by burning fossil fuels, as well as by cement production and deforestation, deforestation accounts for 8 per cent of CO2 emissions and historical and future CO2 emissions must remain below a total 3,200 billion tones to be in with a 66 per cent chance of keeping climate change below 2 degree Celsius. But two thirds (2,000 billion tones) of this quota have already been used.
The researchers added that if global emissions continue at their current rate, the remaining 1,200 billion tones will be used up in around 30 years - one generation and that global emissions must reduce by more than 5 per cent each year over several decades to keep climate change below 2 degree Celsius.
