Carbon emissions are accelerating

A recent study found that between 2000 and 2004, worldwide CO2 emissions increased by 3.1 percent a year, about three times as fast as the 1.1 percent rate of increase in the 1990s. This puts the rate at the high end of the IPCC forecasts, which does not bode well for success in current plans to reduce emissions to a safe level.

According to the IPCC, global emissions must fall 50-85 percent by 2050 to stop the Earth from heating up more than 3.6 degrees F. Higher temperature rises will result in calamitous weather events and irreversible climate damage.

The Bush administration has pointed to recent declines in U.S. carbon intensity and has set the goal of cutting this measurement by 18 percent over 10 years. This is considered "very modest" and close to doing nothing with respect to total global emissions. (Bush is afraid of hurting the U.S. economy, but his mentality is to protect existing industry rather than to encourage innovation and economic growth in new areas that would alleviate the greenhouse gas emissions problem.)

See Study: World carbon emissions are speeding up.

Meanwhile, Investors demand Exxon board shake-up reports that US and European institutional investors led a charge on Wednesday to oust an Exxon board member for "inaction" on climate change.

On a followup to the tropical deforestation issue, a new study concludes that the slowing of tropical deforestation is an essential and cost-effective way to avert severe climate change: Cutting Tropical Deforestation to Avert Global Warming Cheaply - 2007-05-24.