Despite Reductions by Industrialized Countries, Global CO2
Emissions Increase Steeply Global emissions of carbon dioxide
(CO2) increased by 45 percent between 1990 and 2010, and reached
an all-time high of 33 billion tons in 2010. Increased energy-
efficiency, nuclear energy and the growing contributions of
renewable energy are not compensating for the globally
increasing demand for power and transport, which is strongest in
developing countries. This increase took place despite emission
reductions in industrialized countries during the same period.
Even though different countries show widely variable emission
trends, industrialized countries are likely to meet the
collective Kyoto target of a 5.2 percent reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions by 2012 as a group, partly thanks to large
emission reductions from economies in transition in the early
nineties and more recent reductions due to the 2008-2009
recession. These figures were published in the report "Long-term
trend in global CO2 emissions," prepared by t