Climate chief warns on carbon emissions

The industrial world is hurling more carbon into the atmosphere than ever before and governments have just a few years to avert calamitous climate change, the UN climate secretariat said today.

Though overall emissions are rising, UN projections show that the 36 countries which pledged to cut carbon emissions by 5% under the Kyoto Protocol will easily meet their targets by 2012 and will emit nearly 11% less than they did in 1990.