Human-caused global greenhouse emissions rose sharply — by 15 per cent — between 2000 and 2005, according to new research from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL).

By comparison, greenhouse gas emissions rose by 3 per cent between 1990 and 1995, and by 6 per cent between 1995 and 2000.

The Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) found that global annual emissions of greenhouse gases totalled 41 billion tonnes in 2005, up from 24 billion tonnes in 1970 and 33 billion tonnes in 1990. Between 1990 and 2005, total greenhouse gas emissions amounted to 560 billion tonnes.

The EDGAR dataset shows that greenhouse gas emissions have been higher in developing countries than in industrialised countries since 2004, though developing countries emit significantly lower levels of emissions per capita than developed countries (4 tonnes, versus approximately 15 tonnes).

The EDGAR results were based on the latest scientific information and data from international statistics on energy production and consumption, industrial manufacturing, agricultural production, waste treatment/disposal and the burning of biomass in order to model emissions for all countries of the world in a comparable and consistent manner.

Tags: greenhouse gases