Emissions of CO 2 are the main contributor to anthropogenic climate change. Here we present updated information on their present and near-future estimates. We calculate that global CO 2 emissions from fossil fuel burning decreased by 1.3% in 2009 owing to the global financial and economic crisis that started in 2008; this is half the decrease anticipated a year ago 1. If economic growth proceeds as expected 2, emissions are projected to increase by more than 3% in 2010, approaching the high emissions growth rates that were observed from 2000 to 2008 1, 3, 4. We estimate that recent CO 2 emissions from deforestation and other land-use changes (LUCs) have declined compared with the 1990s, primarily because of reduced rates of deforestation in the tropics 5 and a smaller contribution owing to forest regrowth elsewhere.

Fossil fuel CO 2 emissions for the globe are computed from statistics on energy …