The industrialised world's emissions of greenhouse gases are growing again, despite efforts under the Kyoto Protocol to cap them and stave off global warming, the United Nations reported on Monday.
Emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases declined in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the shutdown of polluting factories and power plants in eastern Europe. But now those economies are rebounding, contributing to a 2.4% rise in emissions by 41 industrialised nations between '00 and '04. "
This means that industrialised countries will need to intensify their efforts to implement strong policies which reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Yvo de Boer, head of the UN climate treaty secretariat, referring to taxes on carbon-based fuels, energy-efficiency regulations and other steps.
Scientists attribute a 1 degree Fahrenheit rise in global temperatures in the last century in part to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a trend they say will lead to climate disruptions.
Under the 1997 Kyoto accord, 35 industrialised nations have committed to reducing emissions by an average 5% below 1990 levels by '12. The US, the biggest emitter, rejects the agreement. Between 1990 and '04, emissions of all industrialised countries decreased by 3.3%, mostly because of a 36.8% decrease in the former Soviet bloc, the UN reported. Since 2000, however, those "economies in transition" have increased emissions by 4.1%.
Of the 41 industrialised nations, 34 increased emissions between 2000 and '04, the UN reported. In the United States, source of two-fifths of the industrialised world's greenhouse gases, emissions grew by 1.3% in that period, and by almost 16% between 1990 and '04.
Among countries bound by Kyoto, Germany's emissions dropped 17% between 1990 and '04, Britain's by 14% and France's by almost 1%, the UN reported.
But Kyoto signatories such as Japan, Italy and Spain have registered emissions increases since 1990. De Boer said such countries will have to make extensive use of Kyoto's market-based programs, such as the Clean Development Mechanism. That program allows northern nations to buy credits from emission-reduction projects in the developing world, which is not bound by Kyoto quotas.
The 41 nations defined as industrialised by the 1992 UN climate treaty do not include fast-developing Third World countries like China and India.On a positive note, the UN said the industrialised world is growing more energy-efficient. Between 2000 and 2004, it said, it took 7 percent less greenhouse gas to produce a dollar of gross domestic product.