Greenhouse gas emissions hitting record highs

Bad news awaits delegates from about 180 countries at the start of two weeks of climate talks beginning today to debate a new global warming accord. Greenhouse gas emissions are going up instead of down despite 20 years of effort, hitting record highs, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency.Other unpleasant topics at the conference in Bonn include the tsunami-triggered nuclear disaster in March, which apparently has sidelined Japan's aggressive policies to combat climate change. It also prompted countries like Germany to hasten the decommissioning of nuclear power stations which, regardless of other drawbacks, have nearly zero carbon emissions. "Japan's energy future is in limbo," says analyst Endre Tvinnereim of the consultancy firm Point Carbon. The fallout from the catastrophe has "put climate policy further down the priority list," and the short-term effect in Japan one of the world's most carbon-efficient countries will be more burning of fossil fuels, he said. And despite the expansion of renewable energy around the world, the Paris-based IEA's report said energy-related carbon emissions last year topped 30 gigatons, 5% more than the previous record in 2008. With energy investments locked into coal- and oil-fuelled infrastructure, that situation will change little over the next decade, it said. Fatih Birol, the IEA's chief economist, says the energy trend should be "a wake-up call". The figures are "a serious setback" to hopes of limiting the rise in the Earth's average temperature to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, he said.