U.S. Greenhouse Gases
Rose Two Percent
December 20, 2005 — By John Heilprin, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Emissions of gases
blamed for warming the atmosphere grew by 2 percent in the United States
last year, the Energy Department reported Monday. The report came just
nine days after a United Nations conference where the United States and
China refused to join any talks for imposing binding limits on emissions
of those gases.
The so-called greenhouse gases, led by carbon dioxide, methane and
nitrous oxide, rose to 7.12 million metric tons, up from 6.98 million
metric tons in 2003, the Energy Department's Energy Information
Administration said.
That's 16 percent higher than in 1990, and an average annual increase of
1.1 percent.
About 80 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases last year was carbon dioxide
from burning fossil fuels -- coal, petroleum and natural gas -- for
electricity, transportation, manufacturing and other industrial
processes.
The U.N. conference's Kyoto Protocol, which took effect among developing
countries last year despite President Bush's rejection of it in 2001,
had called for nations to cut their 1990 levels of "greenhouse" gas
emissions by 5 percent by 2012.
Instead, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 would be nearly 25
percent higher than they were in 1990 if they continue at the current
pace of growth. The United States is responsible for a quarter of these
heat-trapping gases globally.
More than 150 nations have agreed to negotiate a second phase of
mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2012. India has joined
the United States and China in declining to take part in it.
Under the Bush Administration, the United States has focused on
voluntary efforts and bilateral and regional arrangements to combat
climate change while devoting about $3 billion a year in government
funds to research and development of energy-saving technologies. One of
those programs includes contributing seed money to companies that can
export U.S. technology for reusing methane, the second biggest
greenhouse gas.
Source: Associated Press
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