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Building of coal power stations is unpardonable folloy - environmentalists

Green campaigners claimed building new airports and coal-fired power stations was an "unpardonable folly" as figures showed carbon dioxide hitting record levels.

Scientists at Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii said atmospheric levels of the climate change gas had hit 387 parts per million (ppm), a rate higher than for some 650,000 years.

The figures published by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in the US also showed the annual average rate of CO2 level rises was 2.14ppm for last year.

Levels of carbon dioxide in the air have been rising consistently since measurements began in 1958 at the remote laboratory in Hawaii, and experts say the rate of growth is increasing.

Professor Andrew Watson of the School of Environment Sciences at the University of East Anglia said there had been average rises of around 1.5ppm a year in the 1980s and 1990s, but levels had been increasing by more than 2ppm most years since 2000.

He said some 70% to 80% of the rises could be attributed to people releasing more CO2 into the atmosphere, for example through burning fossil fuels.

The remaining 20% to 30% was down to the Earth's natural carbon sinks such as oceans "weakening" - losing some of their ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.

Responding to the news, Greenpeace climate change campaigner Robin Oakley said: "We're now witnessing a key moment in the climate change story and it's not good news.

"The last time the atmosphere was this choked with CO2, humans were yet to evolve as a species.

"To even consider building new runways and coal-fired power stations at this juncture in history is an unpardonable folly, but Gordon Brown seems determined to stumble forward regardless with his ill-conceived plans in the face of the science and widespread public opposition."