South Korea reports CO2 output more than doubled since 1990

South Korea's carbon dioxide emissions grew 113 per cent between 1990 and 2007 – the largest growth among the 30 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the government said yesterday.

By comparison, during the 17-year period, global carbon emissions grew 38 per cent, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. It cited International Energy Agency (IEA) data from the World Energy Outlook 2009 report to be released on 10 November.

South Korea ranked as the world’s ninth-largest carbon dioxide emitter, with 488.7 million tons of CO2 in 2007, up from 476.5 million tons the previous year.

The nation's per capita output was at 10.1 tons in 2007, placing Korea 29th in world rankings, up two places from 2006.

The world's top polluter remained China, which emitted six billion tons of CO2 in 2007, followed by the US with 5.7 billion tons. Russia was third, followed by India, Japan, Germany, Canada and the UK, according to the IEA statistics provided by the ministry.

The data is likely to put greater pressure on South Korea to commit to aggressive CO2 cuts ahead of the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. The nation recently announced plans to set a carbon emissions target for 2020 later this year.

The IEA has heavily trailed the latest edition of its World Energy Outlook report in an attempt to reignite the stalled Copenhagen talks. The agency released a preliminary version of the report at the latest round of talks in Bangkok earlier this month, which showed that emissions have fallen in the past year as a result of the recession, giving world leaders an unexpected window of opportunity to accelerate the transition to low carbon technologies.