The global burning of fossil fuels is set to hit a record high in 2017, dashing hopes that the previous three years of flat growth might have signaled a peak in global emissions had been reached.

The Paris Climate Accord aims to keep the earth's average temperature well below a 2 C Degree increase over pre-industrial levels.  In order to do that, carbon emissions need to reach their peak by 2020 and then start falling quickly. 

But the 12th annual Global Carbon Budget report released this week projects that global carbon emissions from fossil fuels will have risen by 2 percent by the end of 2017.  The significant rise came as a shock to climate scientists.

"This is very disappointing," said Professor Corinne Le Quere of the UK's University of East Anglia and who led the new research.  "The urgency for reducing emissions means they should really be already decreasing now.  There was a big push to sign the Paris agreement on climate change but there is a feeling that not very much has happened since, a bit of slackening," she continued.  "What happens after 2017 is very open and depends on how much effort countries are going to make.  It is time to take really seriously the implementation of the Paris agreement."

"The news that emissions are rising after the three-year hiatus is a giant leap backwards for humankind," said Amy Luers, executive director of Future Earth, a global research initiative.  "Pushing the Earth closer to tipping points is deeply concerning.  Emissions need to peak soon and approach zero by 2050."

The US and Europe are actually putting out slightly less carbon in 2017.  India managed to keep its rise to 2 percent, which is less than previous years.  The big problem is the world's biggest polluter, China, where emissions went up 3.5 percent.  Industrial activity is up, but a dry year has limited low-carbon hydro-electric power generation, so the growing economy turned to traditional dirty sources of power.