World growth spurs faster climate change: report

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Global warming is occurring faster than predicted because rapid economic growth has resulted in higher than expected greenhouse gas emissions since 2000, said an Australian report on Tuesday.

Emissions from burning fossil fuels have increased about 3 percent a year since 2000, up from 1 percent a year during the 1990s, said Australia's peak scientific body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

"A major driver of the accelerating growth rate in emissions is that, globally, we're burning more carbon per dollar of wealth created," CSIRO scientist Mike Raupach said in a statement.

"It means that climate change is occurring faster than has been predicted by most of the studies done through the 1990s and into the early 2000s," he said.

Raupach led an international team of carbon-cycle experts, emissions experts and economists, brought together by the CSIRO's Global Carbon Project, to quantify global carbon emissions and demand for fossil fuels.

The report found nearly 8 billion metric tons of carbon were emitted globally into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide in 2005, compared with just 6 billion metric tons in 1995.

"As countries undergo industrial development, they move through a period of intensive, and often inefficient, use of fossil fuel," said Raupach.

"Efficiencies improve along this development trajectory, but eventually tend to level off. Industrialized countries such as Australia and the U.S. are at the leveling-off stage, while developing countries such as China are at the intensive development stage."