The International Energy Agency lists Korea as the world's ninth largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Korea's carbon dioxide emissions jumped 113 percent from 1990 to 2007, the highest growth among the 30 members of the OECD.

The figures come from an excerpt of the World Energy Outlook 2009 report on the IEA website on Oct. 6.

Korea discharged more than 480 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2007, ranking ninth worldwide for the second year and sixth in the OECD. China topped the list, followed by the U.S., Russia, India and Japan. In terms of the per-capita emissions, Korea came 23rd with 10.1 tons, up two notches from 2006.

As a long-term measure to curb carbon dioxide emissions, the IEA is urging OECD countries to join carbon trading in the power generation and industrial sector starting in 2013 and non-OECD key countries like Brazil, China, Russia and South Africa to follow suit.

In the report, the IEA sets out ways to slash greenhouse gas emissions, from improving energy efficiency to developing new alternative energy sources and expanding the use of nuclear energy. It says improvement of energy efficiency is the top priority.