The US, the No.2 emitter, also reversed a declining emissions trend of about 1.2 per cent a year over the past decade. Pollution should increase about 2.5 per cent in 2018 to 5.4 billion tonnes, with short-term extreme weather - an icy winter and blistering summer in many regions - spurring energy use, the report said. Loading “It is disappointing to see global fossil fuel CO2 emissions going back to the strong growth rates of the past," Pep Canadell, a CSIRO researcher and executive director of the project, said. “The strong global CO2 emissions of 2018 are also very likely to continue into 2019 given the projections of a relative strong global economy for that year.”

Lagging efforts The projections come as thousands of delegates met in the Polish city of Katowice for a stocktake of the 2015 Paris climate accord. The agreement, signed by almost 200 nations, aims to keep global warming to well below 2 degrees compared with pre-industrial era levels. “Global commitments made in Paris in 2015 to reduce emissions are not yet being matched by proportionate actions,” said Glen Peters, a research director at Oslo-based CICERO, another of the groups behind the project. “Despite rapid growth in low carbon technologies such as solar and wind power, electric vehicles, and batteries, not nearly enough is being done to support policies that limit the amount of carbon dioxide that is put into the atmosphere.”

Coal consumption, meanwhile, has been "declining slowly but steadily since 2013", the paper noted, with India's increased use of the fuel the one nation to buck the trend. Emissions from India are projected to rise 6.3 per cent in 2018 although the total, at 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2, remains a fraction of other major blocks. Energy use per capita is about one-tenth that of the US, the report said. The European Union's 28 nations will likely see a small reduction in emissions in 2018, dropping 0.7 per cent to 3.5 billion tonnes. Pollution, though, had largely plateaued since 2014, Dr Canadell said. A flock of geese fly past a smokestack at the Jeffery Energy Centre coal power plant near Emmitt, Kansas. Credit:AP Australia's rising trend

Coal use is also in decline in Australia, with annual emissions from burning the fuel dropping 1.1 per cent annually during the 2012-17 period, according to the Global Carbon Project. As in the US, emissions from Australia's oil use - particularly for transport - have been steadily rising, as have those from gas. Emissions from flaring, related to gas production, jumped almost 10 per cent annually in 2012-17. Australia's Environment Minister, Melissa Price, who will attend the Polish talks from Sunday, has said the Morrison government was "confident" of meeting the pledge to reduce national emissions 26-28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030. That target equates to an annual cut of about 10 million tonnes and would need a shift in trajectory as emissions have increased for the past four years, said Frank Jotzo, director of the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy at the Australian National University.