Despite Kyoto, greenhouse gases continue to rise

Greenhouse gas emissions of 40 industrialised countries are continuing to rise, according to a report by the UN Climate Change Secretariat.

The latest figures submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change show that while CO2 emissions in 2006 remained below the 1990 level by about five per cent, they have been risen by 2.3 per cent since 2000.

For the smaller group of those industrialised countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, emissions in 2006 were about 17 per cent below the Kyoto baseline, but still growing after the year 2000.

The figures have been released a fortnight ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in
Poznan, Poland.

That conference is part of two years of negotiations aimed at reaching an ambitious international climate change deal in Copenhagen next year.