In a serious setback to the Rudd Government's stated ambition to become a world leader on climate change, new global figures show Australia's greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuel are continuing to rise rapidly in stark contrast to other developed countries.
"Australia's position remains unique as a developed country," said Dr Michael Raupach, a CSIRO scientist and co-chair of the Global Carbon Project which released the figures yesterday.
"Since 2000 Australian fossil-fuel emissions have grown by 2pc per year".
This rapid rise will make it difficult for Australia to cut its emissions by 2020, even by the modest amount of 10pc recommended by Professor Ross Garnaut, the Government's climate change adviser.
Scientists expressed alarm at the figures, which also show global greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels have soared since 2000, largely because of economic growth in developing countries.
Emissions have grown four times faster than the previous decade, exceeding the worst-case scenarios of the UN's peak scientific body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
India is poised to become the third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, taking the place of Russia.
The top three emitters of carbon dioxide will soon be China, the US and India.
The new emissions figures put together by scientists from Australia, the US, France and Britain reveal that humans generated 10 billion tonnes of carbon in 2007 from the use of fuels like coal and oil, from making cement and from massive deforestation.
This put the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at 383 parts per million, around 37pc above the levels at the start of the industrial revolution and the highest level for at least 650,000 years.
"This new update of the carbon budget shows the acceleration of both carbon dioxide emissions and atmospheric accumulation are unprecedented and most astonishing during a decade of intense international developments to address climate change," Dr Pep Canadell, another member of the project, said.
The figures only measure carbon dioxide emissions. When other gases like methane are added, the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are around 410 parts per million, according to CSIRO scientist Dr Paul Fraser.
The most recent UN scientific reports find that if the concentrations go over 450 parts per million, the world risks increasing average temperatures more than 2.5 degrees, which could cause mass extinctions of species.
Dr Barry Brook, director of the Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability, said the latest figures for atmospheric carbon were ominous.
"If you look at current government policy, then it doesn't add up anyway, even before these figures," he said.
"Cutting our emissions by 60pc by 2050 won't do it, because we are already such high emitters per capita. It has to be more like 90pc."
Addressing a climate change meeting in New York, Mr Rudd warned the introduction of an emissions scheme in Australia and globally was vexed enough without expecting nervous economies to bear further expense by putting a price on carbon.
"It is an even greater difficulty at a time when the global economy is under great global financial stress."
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