Top 40 Industrialized Nations' GHG Emissions Hit 18.2 Billion Tons In 2005, Just Below Record

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OSLO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Rich nations' greenhouse gas emissions rose near to an all-time high in 2005, led by U.S. and Russian gains despite curbs meant to slow global warming, U.N. data showed.

Total emissions by 40 leading industrial nations edged up to 18.2 billion tonnes in 2005 from 18.1 billion in 2004 and were just 2.8 percent below a record 18.7 billion in 1990, according to the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn.

The 2005 rise confirmed an upwards trend in recent years despite efforts at cuts by many governments worried that climate change, widely blamed on fossil fuel use, will spur ever more floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas. "Since 2000, greenhouse gas emissions...increased by 2.6 percent," the Secretariat said.

Emissions by the United States, long the world's top emitter but with China drawing neck and neck, rose to 7.24 billion tonnes in 2005 from 7.19 billion in 2004, according to the first U.N. compilation of national data for 2005.

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