The UK Government has revealed a year-on-year increase in the amount of sulphur dioxide emissions, which reverses a 40-year downward trend.

For the first time since the Seventies, official statistics show a small increase in the emissions of the sulphur dioxide of 2.3 per cent between 2009 and 2010.

The Defra report blamed the rise on a harsher winter and resulting increases in fuel consumption for heating and electricity generation.

Air pollution caused by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) fire may lead to environmental hazards, including acid rain, even as the blaze in two of the 11 oil storage tanks at Sitapura continued on Tuesday, the sixth day.

The United States may soon take the mantle as the global leader on climate change in part because of its strong research and development on energy, said oil historian and analyst Daniel Yergin.

Negotiations in the US House of Representatives on how to cut industrial pollutants that cause global warming reach a critical stage this week as President Barack Obama huddles with key lawmakers on Tuesday and Republicans ready for a fight.

When an equal amount of sulphate (deposited by acid rain) was added, it reduced methane emission by 43 per cent.