The global recovery from recession is set to have a damaging impact on the environment, emissions reduction experts have warned.
As of last week, the UK joined a host of other developed countries in announcing that it had come out of the economic downturn, having posted GDP growth of 0.1 per cent in the final quarter of 2009.
While this may be good news for businesses, chief executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association Jeff Chapman warned that it could also be extremely harmful to the planet.
He explained that figures from the Intercontinental Panel on Climate Change suggest that having 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere would be likely to cause global sea temperatures to rise by 2 C.
At current rates, this figure will be reached in 30 years' time, even without factoring in economic growth, he said.
Mr Chapman added: "If these projections about increasing economic activity are true then of course worse climate change will occur."
