OSLO/LONDON: Global warming could cause more hunger in poor countries and melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, according to a draft UN report due on Friday which also says that up to 40 animal and plant species face extinction as rising temperatures destroy the ecosystems that support them.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), giving the most authoritative study on the regional impact of climate change since 2001, also warns that the poorest nations are likely to suffer most.
The report warns that the temperature rises of 2-3 degrees Celsius predicted by 2050 spell disaster for both humanity and environment.
The panel predicts more heatwaves in countries such as the US, and damages to corals including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
By 2050, the report warns, more than 200 million people could have been forced from their lands by rising sea levels, floods and droughts, with many more facing early deaths from malnutrition and heat stress.
"We are talking about a potentially catastrophic set of developments," Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Environment Programme, said of the impact of rising temperatures, widely blamed on greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. "Even a half-metre rise in sea levels would have catastrophic effects in Bangladesh and some island states," he said.
The report predicts that Himalayan glaciers will melt away, affecting hundreds of millions of people. "If current warming rates are maintained, Himalayan glaciers could decay at very rapid rates, shrinking from the present 500,000 sq km to 100,000 sq km by 2030s," according to a draft technical summary.
