The figures are available on Global Carbon Atlas – www.globalcarbonatlas.org, a platform that has been set up by the Paris-based Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory (LSCE) with the support of the BNP Paribas Foundation.

The data show that global CO2 emissions continued to rise last year, steadily eroding any chance of limiting global warming to an increase of 2°C by 2100.

Global CO2 emissions, which arise from burning fossil fuels and activities such as the production of cement, continue to grow rapidly. In total, 36 billion tons of CO2 were emitted in 2013, an increase of 2.3% on 2012.

This upward trend can be found in all the world’s major economies:

• In China emissions rose 4.2% last year. This is however a slower rate of increase than that recorded over the last decade, the improvement being due partly to the country’s economic slowdown and partly to the efforts being made to reduce the economy’s dependency on fossil fuels.
• In the United States, emissions rose by 2.9%, due mainly to increased use of coal in 2013.
• In India, emissions increased by 5.1%, due for the most part to the country’s economic growth.
• In Europe, emissions fell by 1.8% in 2013, mainly as a consequence of the economic slowdown on the continent.

Given the projections for worldwide economic growth, the current trend will – in the absence of any countervailing policy measures – probably continue at least until 2019.

This observed trend towards continually rising emissions means that considerable efforts will be required to limit the increase in average surface temperature of our planet to the target of 2°C by 2100.

Having set a target of limiting the increase in the average temperature of the planet to 2°C by the end of the century, humanity has already released into the atmosphere some two-thirds of the total permissible greenhouse gas emissions. If emissions continue along today’s path, the projected total will be reached in the next 30 years, ie in a single generation.

Philippe Ciais, a senior researcher at LSCE, said: ‘The sharp increase in CO2 emissions compared with our “quota” of future emissions permissible if we wish to avoid global warming of more than 2°C clearly demonstrates that we now need to take decisive action without delay to decouple economic growth from increases in emissions so as to substantially reduce CO2 output.’