Carbon emissions up one-quarter since 1990

Global carbon emissions rose nearly 3 percent in 2005, up more than a quarter from 1990 levels despite many governments’ pledges of cuts to fight global warming, a scientist who provides data for the U.S. Department of Energy said.

“The rate of acceleration is quite phenomenal,” said Gregg Marland, senior staff scientist at the U.S. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC)..”Half of all emissions have been since 1980. I think people lose track of the rate of acceleration. You tend to think of (this as) something that’s been going on — it’s not,” he told Reuters late on Thursday.

Reuters

This is all the more important because of the inertia in the ecosystem’s uptake of CO2. It takes decades for CO2 to become an active warming agent. Most of the warming so far is caused by emissions from the 50’s 60’s 70’s, or even earlier.