Global carbon pollution reached a record high last year, spurred by China, the US and India, according to researched published in the peer-reviewed journals Nature Geoscience and Nature Climate Change.
Carbon emissions worldwide totaled 39.8 billion tons — some 778 million tons or 2.3 percent more than the previous year, the Associated Press reports. Indian emissions grew by 5.1 percent, Chinese emissions by 4.2 percent and the US emissions by 2.9 percent.
The research, published over the weekend, comes as some 120 nations meet today at the UN Climate Summit in New York. President Obama is attending the event while Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are skipping the summit, the Washington Post reports.