Fossil Fuel Projects from U.S. to China Raise CO2 by 20%

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-22/fossil-fuel-projects-from-u-s-to-china-raise-co2-by-20-.html

Global coal and natural-gas extraction threatens to increase fossil-fuel emissions by a fifth by 2020, jeopardizing efforts to stem rising temperatures, Greenpeace International said.

Planned expansion of fossil-fuel production in 14 parts of the world, including Australia, Iraq, the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic, would add an annual 6.34 gigatons (6.34 billion tons) of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2020, according to a report prepared for Greenpeace by consultants Ecofys.

“We are running out of time to prevent catastrophic climate change,” Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo said today in an e-mailed statement. “The companies promoting, and the governments allowing, these massive climate threats must replace them with renewable energy right away.”

Burning fossil fuels already results in 31.2 gigatons of CO2 a year, according to the International Energy Agency. Global temperatures will increase by 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.5 Fahrenheit) if greenhouse gases rise to 37 gigatons in 2035, IEA projections show.