UN: Industrialised countries' emissions on the rise[fr][de] 

"The picture is somewhat different for countries which have ratified the Kyoto Protocol," as their emissions fell by 17% in the same period, said Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Yvo de Boer, presenting national greenhouse gas inventory data  for the period 1990-2006 on 17 November.

However, he explained that the decrease in Kyoto countries' emissions was mainly due to the economic decline of transition economies in the 1990s, adding that their emissions had been growing since 2000.

The biggest recent increase in industrialised countries' emissions came from economies in transition, primarily in Eastern Europe, which registered a 7.4% rise between 2000 and 2006. 

The rising emissions in industrialised countries highlight "the urgent need for political action on climate change at the upcoming UN climate change conference in Poznań," de Boer said, describing the forthcoming negotiations as "one of the most complicated negotiating processes the international community has ever seen". 

However, he was confident that Poznań would see "the first version of a negotiating text" in a process that is expected to result in an ambitious new international climate change deal in Copenhagen next year. 

The Poznań conference, he said, was also an opportunity to do "some more mandating," like streamlining the clean development mechanism and making the adaption fund, a programme to help poor countries deal with floods and droughts, fully operational.