World leaders urged to act on global warming study

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

PARIS, Jan 30 (Reuters) World governments should take heed of the most wide-ranging scientific assesment so far of a human link to global warming and agree prompt action to slow the trend, the chairman of a UN climate report said.

A draft of the report, due for release on Friday, projects a big rise in temperatures this century and warns of more heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels linked to greenhouse gases released mainly by burning of fossil fuels.

''I hope policies and action will be formed to address the problem,'' Rajendra Pachauri, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman told reporters yesterday.

''I think based on the awareness that is growing very rapidly in every part of the globe, you will see a certain political resolve developing,'' he added.

Governments and scientists began a final review of the (IPCC) draft yesterday which they are due to approve before its release on February 2.

The report draws on research by 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries and has taken six years to compile. It is unlikely there will be major changes between the draft and the final conclusions, according to diplomatic sources.

''SERIOUS CHALLENGE'' Thirty-five industrial nations have signed up to the UN's Kyoto Protocol, capping emissions of carbon dioxide.

The United States pulled out in 2001, arguing Kyoto would cost jobs and wrongly excluded developing nations from goals for 2012.

Still, US President George W Bush said last week that climate change was a ''serious challenge''.

The draft report says there is at least a 90 per cent probability that human activities are to blame for most of the warming in the past 50 years. The previous report, in 2001, rated the probability at just 66 per cent.

The UN report, the fourth of its kind, is expected to foresee temperatures rising by 2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100, with a ''best estimate'' of 3C rise.

REUTERS PB MIR RAI0924

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X