Global warming 'criminal'
2007-11-12 22:30
Valencia - The Nobel-winning panel of world climate experts gathered in Spain on Monday to complete a key report as a top UN official warned failure to tackle global warming would be "criminally irresponsible."
"The effects of climate change are being felt already," Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said.
"Climate change will hit hardest the poorest and most vulnerable countries. Its overall effect, however, will be felt by everyone and will in some cases threaten people's very survival."
Turning to a crucial conference taking place in Bali, Indonesia, next month, de Boer said: "There are ways to deal with the problem. Addressing climate change is affordable, and concerted action now can avoid some of the most catastrophic projections."
He declared: "What is needed is the political will for enhanced multilateral action.
"Failing to recognise the urgency of this message and acting on it would be nothing less than criminally irresponsible.
"Failing to act would constitute a direct attack on the poorest of the poor, and a nihilistic decision to undo achievements of the Millennium Development Goals."
The Valencia meeting gathers scientists, economists and other experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for its successive reports on global warming and its consequences.
Three-volume assessment
The document to be issued in Valencia next Saturday distils a 2 500-page, three-volume assessment issued earlier this year - the first such review since 2001 - into a 25-page synthesis for policymakers and technical summary of about 70 pages.
It is destined to provide a compass for governments, legislators and other decision-makers on how to mitigate carbon emissions and adapt to a changing climate.
"This will be the report that everyone will turn to time and time again over the next five years to see what the science is telling us," said Hans Verolme, head of WWF's Global Climate Change Programme.
"Climate Change is an issue for potential implications for world peace that will increase the risk of conflict over water, food, and energy," said Yan Hong, deputy secretary of the World Meteorological Organisation, one of the IPCC's two parent bodies.
"It could also lead to massive population resettlement, especially to urban areas that may not have capacity to shelter, feed and employ them," he said.
The Valencia "synthesis report" will summarise three reports issued in February and April, focussing respectively on the scientific evidence for global warming; its impacts; and options for tackling climate change.
Rise by between 1.1-6.4°C
The earlier reports pointed to retreating glaciers and snow loss in alpine regions, thinning Arctic summer sea ice and thawing permafrost.
By 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1°C and 6.4°C compared to 1980-99 levels, they predicted. Sea levels will rise by between 18 and 59cm.
Heatwaves, flooding, drought, tropical storms and surges in sea level are among the events expected to become more frequent, more widespread and more intense this century.
These earlier reports said the deeper and faster the cut in emissions, the higher the cost - but the bill could be relatively modest and existing technologies, or those within reach, could be used.
- SAPA