Global Carbon Project

Public release date: 25-Sep-2008

Contact: Pep Canadell

Pep.Canadell@csiro.au

61-407-068-930

Growth in the global carbon budget

Updated global carbon budget released

Today the new Global Carbon Budget was launched simultaneously by

Global Carbon Project co-chair Michael Raupach in France at the Paris

Observatory, and in the USA at Capitol Hill, Washington by GCP

Executive Director Pep Canadell.

The Global Carbon Project posted the most recent figures for the

worlds' carbon budget, a key to understanding the balance of carbon

added to the atmosphere, the underpinning of human induced climate

change. Despite the increasing international sense of urgency, the

growth rate of emissions continued to speed up, bringing the

atmospheric CO2 concentration to 383 parts per million (ppm) in 2007.

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions have been growing about four times faster

since 2000 than during the previous decade, despite efforts to curb

emissions in a number of Kyoto Protocol signatory countries. Emissions

from the combustion of fossil fuel and land use change reached 10

billion tones of carbon in 2007. Natural CO2 sinks are growing but

slower than the atmospheric CO2 growth, which has been increasing at 2

ppm since 2000 or 33% faster than the previous 20 years.

Dr. Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project said

"This new update of the carbon budget shows the acceleration of both

CO2 emissions and atmospheric accumulation are unprecedented and most

astonishing during a decade of intense international developments to

address climate change."

Emissions growth for 2000-2007 was above even the most fossil fuel

intensive scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(SRES-IPCC). While the developing nations of China and India continue

to increase emissions, China has improved the carbon intensity of

their economy since 2005, based on data from the National Energy

Administration in China.

Decreasing forest cover, almost exclusively from deforestation in

tropical countries, was responsible for an estimated 1.5 billion tons

of emissions to the atmosphere above what was gained through new

plantings. Although the oceans carbon uptake was expected to rise with

the higher atmospheric concentration of CO2, in 2007 it was reduced by

a net 10 million tons.

Natural land and ocean CO2 sinks, which have removed 54% (or 4.8

billion tons per year) of all CO2 emitted from human activities during

the period 2000-2007, are now becoming less efficient. While the size

of these sinks continues to grow in response to greater concentrations

of CO2 in the atmosphere, they are losing efficiency as feedbacks

between the carbon cycle and climate increase.

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The Global Carbon Budget is the result of an international

collaboration through the Global Carbon Project by Corinne Le Quéré

(University of East Anglia/British Antarctic Survey, UK)¶; Mike

Raupach (CSIRO, Australia)*; Philippe Ciais (Commissariat a L'Energie

Atomique, France)§,;Thomas Conway (NOOA, USA) 2; Chris Field (Carnegie

Institution of Washington, USA)**; Skee Houghton (Woods Hole Research

Center, USA)∞; Gregg Marland (Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis

Center, USA) ‡; Pep Canadell (CSIRO, Australia)*.

¶University of East Anglia/British Antarctic Survey, School of

Environment Sciences, Norwich, 1 NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom; *Global

Carbon Project, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research

Organisation Marine and Atmospheric Research, Canberra, ACT 2601,

Australia; §Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Laboratorie des

Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Gif sur Yvette, 91191,

France; 2National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, Earth System

Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO 80305-3328 **Carnegie Institution of

Washington, Department of Global Ecology, Stanford, CA 94305; ∞Woods

Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA 02540-1644; ‡Carbon Dioxide

Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge,

TN 37831

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