Rich nations revise up greenhouse gas problem

OSLO (Reuters) – Industrialized nations have added greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the annual totals of France or Australia to a 1990 baseline against which cuts required by U.N. climate treaties are measured.

Emissions reported by 34 nations for the 1990 base year that underpins U.N. efforts to rein in global warming have risen 3.5 percent overall to 17.6 billion tons in the most recent annual data from 17.0 billion in the first U.N. compilation in 1996, a Reuters survey showed on Wednesday.

That difference — adding about 600 million tons of gases emitted mainly by burning fossil fuels to the problem — is more than the current annual emissions of countries such as Italy, Australia or France.

The biggest rises have been by the United States and Russia.

Governments refine their emissions counts year by year, in some cases adding new gas sources. In many cases revisions to the 1990 baseline also add to emissions in subsequent years, swelling totals that are contributing to warm the planet.

Reuters