From cosmosmagazine.com:
China has already surpassed the United States as the world’s largest carbon polluter, the authors of a U.S. study said yesterday.

“Our best forecast has China’s CO2 [carbon dioxide] emissions correctly surpassing the United States in 2006 rather than 2020 as previously anticipated,” said the study by researchers at the University of California.

The report, written by economic professors Maximilian Aufhammer and Richard Carson of the Berkeley and San Diego campuses respectively, will be published next month in the U.S. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

Researchers compiled information about the use of fossil fuels in various Chinese provinces and forecast an 11 per cent annual growth of carbon emissions from 2004 to 2010. Previous estimates had set the growth rate at 2.5 to 5 per cent.

According to the paper’s authors, the spike in air pollution by China has largely cancelled out efforts by other countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the .

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