The Green Party says new figures on the world's production of carbon dioxide show the need to phase out coal mining.
The International Energy Agency says CO2 emissions reached an all-time high in 2011 - and were up 3 per cent on the previous year.
The Greens' climate change spokesman isn't surprised coal burning accounted for nearly half of it.
"Coal is essentially the dirtiest form of energy, even fossil fuel energy, which is why the Green party has called a moratorium on coal - no new coal mines, and a phase out of existing coal plants," said Kennedy Graham.
He said the Government has to start looking into switching to renewable resources.
