Coal is the sedimentary organic rock formed from vegetation that lived millions of years ago.

The most mature coal variety, anthracite - hard, black and lustrous - is nearly pure carbon, and has historically been regarded as useful to humans because of its high energy content.

But dirty brown coal, or lignite, produces most CO2 per unit of energy.

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Victoria's hefty increase, caused mainly by emissions from its Latrobe Valley brown coal-fired power stations, went against the Victorian government's policy of cutting greenhouse emissions by 60 per cent of 2000 levels by 2050, the report said.

Climate Group Australian director Rupert Posner said the state government was not doing enough to reverse greenhouse emissions.

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The ocean's food chain is based upon the growth of billions upon billions of microscopic plants. New satellite data show that ocean warming is reducing these plants ---- thus imperiling ocean fisheries and marine life, according to an article in the Nov. 7 issue of the scientific journal Nature.

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If current production of carbon from fossil fuels continues unabated, by the end of the century the land and oceans will be less able to take up carbon than they are today, the model indicates.

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