West’s greenhouse gas emissions begin rising again-ToI-9.11.11

Nitin Sethi TNN 

New Delhi: In a pointer to recession easing in the West, greenhouse gas emissions from the developed countries have begun rising again since 2009. 
    Data emerging from the US government and a European Commission-supported study shows that emissions — which are linked to industrial activity requiring burning of fossil fuels — have begun to rise again in the developed countries. 
    While these countries are on target to meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, they fall far short of the need to cut emissions by 35-40 per cent below 1990 levels in order to stave off dangerous climate change and give developing countries an equitable share in the carbon space. 
    Emissions from the United States had dipped to 5.04 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2009 after a high of 5.93 billion tonnes in 2006 but now they are climbing back with emissions in 2010 pegged at 5.25 billion tonnes. 
    The story for Europe is similar. EU-27 had marked a low of 3.94 billion tonnes in 2009 after a high of 4.25 in 2004 but its now spewing out more harmful gases and in 2010 it hit 4.05 billion tonnes. 
    However,measuring emissions on a per capita basis reveals the vast difference between the developing and the rich countries that continues to persist as the latter demand international commitments from the poorer countries. 
    By 2010, the per capita emissions were estimated at 16.9 tonnes for the US and 9.2 tonnes for the EU as compared to 1.5 tonnes per capita for India and 6.8 tonnes for China. 
    In terms of absolute annual emissions, India emitted 1.84 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2010, just 35 per cent of the emissions of the US even though the population of US is a third of India. 
    The results come days before the Durban climate talks where EU is expected to push emerging economies to take on emission reduction targets even as it shies away from taking strong emission reduction targets under Kyoto Protocol. 
    The developed economies have also been hedging on providing funds to developing countries to adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions on the pretext that their own economies are going through a bad phase and there is little money to spare.