In 2013, global emissions of greenhouse gases rose 2.3 percent, scientists reported Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The numbers were reported by the Global Carbon Project tracking initiative, and released prior to a United Nations summit on Tuesday that will attempt to tackle climate change. Scientists say there's no sign that U.N. member nations will agree to more ambitious efforts to curtail emissions, but they insist that changes need to be made — and soon.
"You can no longer have some countries go first and others come in later, because there is no more time," Glen P. Peters, a scientist with the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, told The New York Times. "It needs to be all hands on deck now."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In the United States, emissions rose 2.9 percent, thanks to greater use of coal, after declining in recent years due to increased burning of natural gas in power generation. Overall global emissions growth was slightly slower than the average annual rate of 2.5 percent over the past 10 years, thanks in part to an economic slowdown in China. China is the world's largest source of emissions, at 10 billion tons a year of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and manufacturing cement.
-
How Tesla has put Elon Musk on track to be the world’s first trillionaireIn The Spotlight The package agreed by the Tesla board outlines several key milestones over a 10-year period
-
Cop30: is the UN climate summit over before it begins?Today’s Big Question Trump administration will not send any high-level representatives, while most nations failed to submit updated plans for cutting greenhouse gas emissions
-
‘The Big Crunch’: why science is divided over the future of the universeThe Explainer New study upends the prevailing theory about dark matter and says it is weakening
-
Dinosaurs were thriving before asteroid, study findsSpeed Read The dinosaurs would not have gone extinct if not for the asteroid
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
