Greenhouse Emissions Hit Record Level & Germany Ends Nukes

Carbon emissions from energy use reached a record level last year, up 5% from the previous record in 2008, the International Energy Agency said.

The Paris-based agency called the findings a "serious setback" to limit global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F), which was set at the U.N. climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico, last year.

"Our latest estimates are another wake-up call," said Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA. "The world has edged incredibly close to the level of emissions that should not be reached until 2020 ... it will be extremely challenging to succeed in achieving this global goal agreed in Cancun."

Carbon emissions climbed to a record 30.6 gigatonnes in 2010. For the 2-degree goal to remain attainable, emissions in 2020 can't be greater than 32 gigatonnes.

-- www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/05/31/world.carbon.emissions/index.html?hpt=T2

Germany to shutter reactors 2022

Europe's economic powerhouse, Germany, announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next 11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other countries.

Merkel's government said it will shut down all 17 nuclear power plants in Germany — the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's biggest — by 2022. The government had no immediate estimate of the transition's overall cost.

- www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/30/501364/main20067387.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.11