U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emmissions up

U.S. and Russian greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2005, more than canceling out a dip in the European Union’s emissions despite growing calls to limit global warming, official data shows. Combined emissions by the United States, Russia and the EU, accounting for about half the world total, rose by 0.4 percent to 14.55 billion tons in 2005 from 2004, according to data compiled by Reuters from the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.

“Emissions trends are continuing upwards, which contradicts political rhetoric globally,” Bill Hare, a Greenpeace adviser who also works at German Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said during 166-nation U.N. climate talks in Bonn.

U.S. data submitted to the Secretariat show emissions rose by 0.7 percent in 2005 to a record 7.24 billion tons and were 16.3 percent above 1990 levels.

Russia’s report shows that emissions, which plunged with the collapse of Soviet-era smokestack industries in the 1990s, rose by 2.2 percent in 2005 to 2.13 billion tons. But they were still 28.7 percent below 1990 levels.

Emissions by 27 EU members dipped by 0.8 percent to 5.18 billion tons and were 8.0 percent below 1990 levels, with big 2005 cuts by Germany, Finland and the Netherlands.

“The figures could still be adjusted slightly,” said Andreas Barkman of the European Environment Agency.

The United States, the EU and Russia are the main emitters among industrialized societies. Nations including Japan and Canada have not sent in data for 2005.

The European Union and Russia are signatories of the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 35 industrialized nations by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 in a first small step to slow warming.

President George W. Bush opposes Kyoto-style caps on emissions, saying they would cost jobs, but is trying to cut the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per dollar of economic output by 18 percent in the decade to 2012.

Washington says it is on track to reach that goal. Some U.S. states, such as California, and some cities are embracing Kyoto-style caps.