GLOBAL carbon dioxide emissions are set to rise to new record highs in 2012, scientists have warned.
As United Nations talks on tackling climate change continue, emissions of the most significant greenhouse gas from burning fossil fuels are projected to have risen by 2.6% on last year's levels to a high of 35.6 billion tonnes, according to analysis from the Global Carbon Project.
This year's carbon emissions will be 58% above levels in 1990, the baseline year for the original Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to curb gases that cause climate change, research published in the journal Nature Climate Change reveals.
The latest rise means the gap between actual emissions and the levels of pollution the world can emit without temperatures rising by more than 2C above pre-industrial levels has widened further. The world is on track for rises of 4C to 6C by the end of the century, according to the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, which co-led the research.
Officials from almost 200 countries meeting in Doha, Qatar, for talks on climate change are under pressure to make progress towards a new deal to curb global emissions in 2015, which would come into effect in 2020.
Professor Corinne Le Quere, director at the Tyndall Centre, said: "With emissions continuing to grow, it's as if no-one is listening to the entire scientific community."
Research also revealed the biggest contributors to global emissions, with China emitting 28% of total carbon dioxide, the United States 16%, European Union 11% and India 7%.
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