According to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, 2010 was by far a record year for greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and cement manufacture: over 33.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. This is about 512 Tg-C, or 5.9%, over the 2009 global estimate. The increase is larger than the worst-case scenario expected by United Nations scientists when the 2008 IPCC report was issued.
Much of the 5.9% global increase from 2009 to 2010 is due to increased emissions from China, where emissions rose 10% to 2.247 Tg-C. Emissions from the United States were 1,498 Tg-C, still down from their 2007 high, due to poor economic conditions.
The preliminary 2009 and 2010 global and national carbon emission estimates are available at:
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/ftp/trends/co2_emis/Preliminary_CO2_emissions_2010.xlsx
