Global warming will be catastrophic to cities

London: Global temperatures could rise more than that currently predicted by the end of this century, said a study of climate change.

Thousands of scientists involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are expected to conclude in a report to be published this week that global average temperatures could rise by between 1 and 6.3 degrees Celsius by 2100.

The upper end of the predicted range is half a degree higher than previously assumed by IPCC, set up in 1988 by the United Nations to examine evidence of man-made global warming, and is likely to mean a far greater temperature rise at the poles.

A global average temperature rise of more than two degrees Celsius is already regarded by many scientists as dangerous to human society. A rise of more than five degrees Celcius would be regarded as catastrophic to low-lying cities, which include London.

The main message to the world's politicians from the thousands of scientists involved in IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, to be published on Friday, will be the increased confidence attached to the statement that the warmer temperatures of the past 50 years are mainly attributable to man's activities.