Guardian UK
Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency
The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius-which scientists say is the threshold for potentially "dangerous climate change" – is likely to be just "a nice Utopia", according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA.
Sorry to bring you this dire news in this brief diary. We are in the worst possible situation with the effects of Climate Change.
Not much hope for next weeks meeting in Bonn
The record leap in global greenhouse gas emissions last year has thrown the spotlight on the world's only concerted attempt to stem the tide of global warming – the United Nations climate negotiations.
Next week, governments will convene in Bonn, Germany, for the latest round of more than 20 years of tortuous talks, aimed at forging a binding international agreement on climate change which so far has eluded them.
This is what we were hoping would not happen. A situation where there are few options left.
According to the IEA, the problem the UN process is seeking to address is growing faster than anyone predicted. If emissions this year rise at the same pace as last year, the world will exceed 32 gigatonnes of Co2 in energy-related emissions alone in a single year. This is the level the IEA had expected emissions to reach by 2020, indicating that the growth of CO2 emissions has been much quicker than expected.
Unless these rises can be turned to reductions within a few years, the world will soon be well beyond what scientists say is the limit of safety
I don't have much to add except to encourage everyone to get their carbon use as low as possible. We need to find a way to influence the Bonn talks and get on that immediately.