The snappily named Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found that greenhouse gas emissions have increased annually by around 3% since 2000, compared to 1% during the 90s – a trend, the organisation said, that can be attributed to economic growth.

“A major driver of the accelerating growth rate in emissions is that, globally, we’re burning more carbon per dollar of wealth created,” said CSIRO lead scientist Mike Raupach. “It means that climate change is occurring faster than has been predicted by most of the studies done through the 1990s and into the early 2000s.”

Led by CSIRO’s Global Carbon Project, the report was carried out by an international team of carbon-cycle and emissions specialists to quantify global carbon emissions and demand for fossil fuels.

The report concluded that almost 8 billion metric tonnes of carbon were released into the atmosphere in the form of CO2 in 2005 – 2 billion more than in 1995.

And the CSIRO warned that while developed nations are largely and disproportionately responsible for global emissions since the industrial revolution, the inefficiencies of development mean that developing countries like India and China will only intensify the problem through a reliance on fossil fuel.

Hopefully the Australian government will start listening to their boffins and finally get round to taking its pen to the Kyoto Agreement.