Bad news on the global carbon budget

Anthropogenic CO₂ emissions have been growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the previous decade, and despite efforts to curb emissions in a number of countries which are signatories of the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel and land use change reached the mark of 10 billion tones of carbon in 2007. Natural CO₂ sinks are growing, but more slowly than atmospheric CO₂, which has been growing at 2 ppm per year since 2000. This is 33% faster than during the previous 20 years. All of these changes characterize a carbon cycle that is generating stronger climate forcing and sooner than expected. (source)

Those are the conclusions of the Global Carbon Project in their recently released report, Carbon Trends 2007. The atmospheric concentration of CO₂ now stands at 383 parts per million, and total emissions are higher than ever. We're not just changing the world's climate, we're changing it faster than ever before. It's past time to stop arguing about whether we're affecting the climate and time to start arguing about how we should respond.