World cannot afford worsening disasters

UN News Centre: The world cannot afford escalating disasters of the kind recently witnessed in Pakistan and Russia, the top United Nations climate change official said today, underscoring the need for governments to take swift action to lead the world towards a low-carbon future.

Flooding in Pakistan and wildfires in Russia were “so dramatic” that many other major weather disasters in other parts of the world “were relegated as secondary news,” Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told reporters today in Geneva. “Science will show whether and how these events are related to the climate change that is caused by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions,” she added.

Ms. Figueres stressed that only governments can prepare societies for climate change and that they must continue to make progress through UN negotiations, “every time taking bigger, bolder steps to keep us ahead of the storm.”

The next UNFCCC negotiating session will be held in Tianjin, China, in October, before countries are set to meet at the next conference of parties in Cancun, Mexico, in November. “There is a growing sense of urgency amongst governments that they need to take this next step in Cancun,” the UNFCCC chief said told reporters today on the margins of an informal dialogue on financing for climate change attended by some 40 ministers…..

An aerial view of damage caused by flooding is shown in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan Aug. 5, 2010. Humanitarian relief and evacuation missions are being conducted as part of the disaster relief efforts to assist Pakistanis in flood-stricken regions of the nation.