CO2 emissions hit record

Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 could rise to nine billion tons above what is needed to limit global warming as some countries look set to miss their emissions cut targets, a report by three climate research groups said.
According to a Reuters report, countries have agreed that deep emissions cuts are needed to limit an increase in global average temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius this century above pre-industrial levels, a threshold that scientists say is the minimum required to limit devastating effects like crop failure and melting glaciers.
They believe the 2 degree limit is only possible if emissions levels are kept to around 44 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020.
The report by non-governmental organisation Climate Analytics, consultancy Ecofys and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said many governments are not implementing policies to meet their emissions reduction pledges for 2020, and could increase rather than close the gap between real emissions and what is needed to limit warming.
In a separate report, the International Energy Agency said China had spurred a jump in global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to their highest ever recorded level in 2011, offsetting falls in the US and Europe.
Negotiators from over 180 nations are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until today, to work toward getting a new global climate pact signed by 2015 and to ensure ambitious emissions cuts are made after the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of this year.
Procedural wrangling and a reluctance to raise ambitions to cut emissions due to economic constraints is threatening progress, however.
The planet is heading to a temperature rise of at least 3.5 degrees, but that could be even higher if 2020 pledges are not met, the report warned.
"There would be quite profound effects on developing countries," Hare said, according to Reuters.