An international project giving up-to-date information on carbon emissions has opened its first UK office in Norwich.

The Global Carbon Project provides scientific data to both policy-makers and the public on the latest trends in CO2 emissions around the world. It already has offices in Australia, Japan, France, US, China and South Korea but is set to add another at the University of East Anglia.

Its UK office is located at the UEA-led Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Last year, the group reported global CO2 emissions had reached 10 billion tonnes following a 50 per cent rise over the last two decades in emissions from fossil fuels.

Corinne Le Qu�r�, co-chair of the Global Carbon Project and Tyndall Centre director, said: 'Without accurate, up-to-date information, policy-makers lack the tools to plan effective future strategy in this vitally important field. Establishing the Global Carbon Project's first UK office is a significant step in improving the quality of the data and reducing uncertainty in the science.'

The new office at UEA will pave the way for an International Carbon Office that would compile, analyse, report and archive global CO2 statistics, and monitor CO2 'sinks'.