UN climate body chief warns window of opportunity is short

Abu Dhabi: There is little opportunity left for the world to counter the impacts of climate change, following last month's summit in Copenhagen that failed to live up to expectations, the UN climate body chief warned yesterday.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), predicted increased frequency and duration of extreme events, which will make life difficult in many parts of the world, and said some nations are already living in a state of fear and mounting threat.

"What we have after Copenhagen is an extremely short window of opportunity," he warned.

"The world has to seize this opportunity to act against climate change. If not, the impacts of climate change could be terribly negative and possibly disastrous," he said.

Experts demand the curbing of greenhouse gases, blamed for causing climate change, to keep the increase in global temperatures to no more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. For this to become reality, the IPCC says, global emissions should peak by 2015.

The science is compelling, Pachauri said, speaking at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Established in 1998, the IPCC is considered the world's leading authority on climate change.

Based on IPCC's fourth assessment report published in 2007, Pachauri said: "If we do nothing to curb the greenhouse gas emissions the global temperature will continue to increase. Dangers associated with this include increased frequency and duration of extreme events, making it very difficult for different parts of the world."

Moral responsibility

He called it the moral and ethical responsibility of the global community to help some of the worst affected countries, which are also among the poorest.

"Some of them are living in a state of fear and mounting threat. They are already feeling the impacts of climate change," he said, referring to countries such as the Maldives, Bangladesh and islands in the South Pacific.

The psychological impacts that precede the physical dangers they will face are grave, Pachauri noted.

"Even prosperous nations like [the ones in] North America will not be spared."

As early as 2020 water scarcity and stress will affect 75 to 250 million people, and agricultural output will be down in many countries by 50 per cent, the IPCC report said.

Elaborating on the impacts of climate change on the Gulf region, Pachauri said: "The rising sea level will imperil some parts of the region. There will also be increased heatwaves, and changes in precipittion patterns."

Chalking out adaptation measures is hence important, he said.

"Our children and grandchildren will otherwise pay the brunt of our inaction," the IPCC chief said, calling for an upsurge in action at the grassroots levels.

There should be lifestyle changes too, as we are "living on borrowed time and borrowed resources".