CO2 emissions rising faster than ever before
Latest results of the Global Carbon Project (GCP)
The latest figures on the global carbon budget released in Washington and Paris indicate a four-fold increase in growth rate of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions since 2000. Annual mean growth rate of atmospheric CO2 was 2.2 ppm per year in 2007 (up from 1.8 ppm in 2006), and above the 2.0 ppm average for the period 2000-2007.
The average annual mean growth rate for the previous 20 years was about 1.5 ppm per year.
This increase brought the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 383 ppm in 2007. 37 per cent above the concentration at the start of the industrial revolution (about 280 ppm in 1750). The present concentration is the highest during the last 650,000 years and probably during the last 20 million years. (Image credit: Gregory Heath , CSIRO)
