London, Nov 21 – Carbon dioxide emissions are up by 29 percent since 2000, far beyond the capacity of the global ’sinks’ to absorb such volumes, says a report.

The use of coal as a fuel has now surpassed oil and developing countries now emit more greenhouse gases than developed countries – with a quarter of their growth in emissions accounted for by increased trade with the West.

An international team of researchers under the umbrella of the Global Carbon Project reports that over the last 50 years, the average fraction of global carbon dioxide emissions that remained in the air each year was around 43 percent.

The rest was absorbed by the carbon sinks on land and in the oceans. During this time, this fraction has likely increased from 40 percent to 45 percent. The team brings evidence that the sinks are responding to climate change and variability.

Corinne Le Quere professor at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the British Antarctic Survey, who led the study said: ‘The only way to control climate change is through a drastic reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions.’

‘The earth’s carbon sinks are complex and there are some gaps in our understanding, particularly in our ability to link human-induced carbon dioxide emissions to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on a year-to-year basis,’ Le Quere said.

‘But, if we can reduce the uncertainty about the carbon sinks, our data could be used to verify the effectiveness of climate mitigation policies,’ he concluded.

These findings were published in Nature Geoscience.

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