BONN, Germany — As a new report showed the world backsliding on curbing carbon emissions, officials at global climate talks were working Monday to break a deadlock over issues such as compensation for countries hardest-hit by global warming.
The talks in Bonn, now in their second week, are intended to resolve some of the nitty-gritty details for implementing the 2015 Paris climate accord, but observers said some of the disputes may not be resolved until a meeting next year in Poland.
Participating countries have agreed to keep global warming significantly below 3.6 degrees.
But scientists say new figures show global carbon emissions will reach a record high in 2017, dashing hopes that levels of the heat-trapping gas might have plateaued after three consecutive years when they didn’t go up at all.
Preliminary figures project that worldwide carbon dioxide emissions are up about 2 percent this year, according to the Global Carbon Project, an international scientific effort. Most of the increase came from China.
In the last three years, carbon emissions levels had stabilized at about 40 billion tons. Estimates for 2017 put it at about 40.8 billion tons, the report states. Sixty years ago , the world spewed only 9.2 billion tons.
‘‘It’s a bit staggering,’’ said study coauthor Ralph Keeling, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientist, noting that levels have increased fourfold since he was born in the 1950s.
Manmade carbon dioxide is causing more than 90 percent of global warming since 1950, US scientists reported this month.
Key topics at the Bonn conference include how to measure individual countries’ efforts, taking stock of what’s been achieved so far and setting new emissions reduction targets needed to reach the Paris goal.
Developing countries also want rich nations to pay for some of the effects climate change will have. particularly on poor regions.
‘‘Without that support forthcoming from the developed countries, there’s going to be some real fireworks at the end of this week,’’ said Alden Meyer, strategy and policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group in Washington.
Poor nations see the issue of financial compensation, known in UN parlance as ‘‘loss and damage,’’ as a matter of fairness. They argue that rising sea levels and more extreme weather will hit them disproportionately hard even though they have contributed only a fraction of the carbon emissions.
Rich countries counter that they are already paying billions of dollars to help developing nations reduce emissions and to adapt to climate change.
The other issue that’s being debated in Bonn is what emissions-cutting measures are necessary before 2020.
Much of the focus at the Nov. 6-17 meeting is on the United States, after President Trump’s announcement that he would pull out of the Paris accord unless he can get a better deal for Americans. While other developed countries reject the Trump administration’s stance on the agreement, their views on loss and damage are largely in step with Washington’s.
Protesters drowned out speeches by White House advisers and business representatives Monday at an event the US government sponsored in Bonn to promote the use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
About 200 protesters stood up 10 minutes into the event and began singing an anticoal song. They were ushered out of the room
.
