Climate fear as global warming speeds up

The rate at which greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere has risen sharply, leading to fears that climate change could be speeding up.

Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main "greenhouse" gas, have jumped suddenly over a two-year period, raising fears of runaway global warming.

The findings, which have left scientists baffled, will be discussed tomorrow by the Government's chief scientist, Dr David King, at the annual Greenpeace business lecture.

The alarming rise in CO2 levels cannot be explained by any corresponding increase in CO2 emissions from power stations or motor vehicles, because there has been none.

Some scientists believe the abrupt rise may be evidence of the climate change "feedback" mechanism, by which global warming alters the earth's natural systems causing warming to increase even faster than before, according to the report.

Details of the increase have come from an observatory 12,000 feet up a mountain in Hawaii, which has been measuring the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere since 1958.

The average rise in CO2 levels has been about 1.6 parts per million by volume in recent decades, although there have been several peaks associated with El Nino - a disruptive weather pattern in the tropical Pacific.

However, in the last two years the level has risen by 2.08ppm and

2.54ppm, and neither were El Nino years. Dr Charles Keeling, the American physicist in charge of the project in Hawaii, said the rise might be something to do with a pattern of high and low atmospheric pressure, known as the Southern Oscillation, or it could be something new.

He said: "It is possible this is merely a reflection of the Southern Oscillation, but it is possible it is the beginning of a natural process unprecedented in records."

Only last month, Tony Blair delivered a speech warning of the "catastrophic consequences" climate change could bring.

He insisted action must be taken now to avert potential disaster brought about by rising temperatures. In his speech, the Prime Minister said the emission of greenhouse gases was causing global warming "at a rate that began as significant, has become alarming and is simply unsustainable in the long-term".

Leading British scientists and environmentalists agreed with the findings.

Dr Piers Forster, of the meteorology department of the University of Reading, said: "If this is a rate change [in the CO2 rise], of course it will be very significant.

"It will be of enormous concern, because it will imply that all our global warming predictions for the next 100 years or so will have to be redone. If the higher rate of increase continues, things will get very much worse. It will make our predicament even more catastrophic."