PARIS:
Carbon emissions from the industrialised world in 2006 were higher than at the
start of the century, mainly as a result of revived activity by former
Soviet-bloc states, according to UN figures released released
recently.
Greenhouse gas
emissions from 40 so-called Annex 1 countries under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change were almost unchanged in 2006, falling by 0.1% from
2005, the UNFCCC said on Monday. From 2000 to 2006, though, emissions increased
by 2.3%.
The annual inventory
was published by the UNFCCC two weeks ahead of negotiations running in Poznan,
Poland, from December 1-12 on commitments beyond 2012, when pledges under the
treaty's Kyoto Protocol
expire.
These figures do not
take forestry, land use and conversion of land into
account.
When this factor is
incorporated, emissions by the "Annex 1" countries rose by 1.0% from 2000-2006
and by 0.4% from 2005-2006, the Bonn-based UNFCCC said. "The figures clearly
underscore the urgency for the UN negotiating process to make good progress in
Poznan and move forward quickly in designing a new agreement to respond to the
challenge of climate change," UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer said in a
press release.
The UNFCCC, the
offshoot of the 1992 Rio Summit, has 192 members, but only industrialised
parties, not developing states, are required to provide data to the
greenhouse-gas inventory.
From
the benchmark year of 1990 to 2006, emissions from Annex 1 countries fell by
4.7%, excluding land and forests, but this was largely as a result of the
collapse of carbon-spewing industries in the former Soviet bloc.