WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) – U.S. greenhouse gas
emissions rose 3.2 percent in 2010 from the previous year amid
economic growth and higher electricity demand from high summer
temperatures, the Environmental Protection Agency said on
Monday.
The world’s second-biggest emitter behind China produced
6.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent of all six
greenhouse gases, the EPA said.
As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United States is required to
submit an annual inventory of its greenhouse gas emissions based
on data collected across numerous federal agencies.
Greenhouse gas output from other major emitters Japan and
Russia also rose in the same time period, according to the
inventories they submitted last week to the UNFCCC.
The inventory showed that since 1990, the baseline year
that countries that agreed to mandatory greenhouse gas targets
under the Kyoto Protocol, U.S. emissions have increased at an
average annual rate of 0.5 percent.
Overall, U.S. emissions have increased by 10.5 from 1990
levels in 2010.
The U.S., however, is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol
and has instead pledged it would reduce its greenhouse gas
emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
In 2010, the United States emitted 5.3 percent fewer
greenhouse gases than in 2005 when it produced 7.2 billion
tonnes.
The U.S. emitted its second-highest level of greenhouse gas
emissions in the 1990-2010 period in 2005.
Its biggest emitting year in that 20-year period was 2007,
a year before the global financial crisis hit, when the U.S.
emitted 7.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases.
(Reporting By Valerie Volcovici; editing by M.D. Golan)
