New Europe: Despite ambitious plans to curb carbon dioxide emissions, their levels are rising in the European Union, mostly because the bloc’ older and wealthiest countries are continuing to spew them, the European Commission said. But officials insisted that since the increase in emissions was slower than the pace of EU economic growth, that proved plans to reduce them are still working. According to the Commission, the more than 11,000 factories, power plants and smelters in the EU emitted 2.05 …