UN climate report bolsters case for helping poor adapt

Megan Rowling in the Thomson Reuters Foundation Alertnet: The latest report from the U.N. climate panel, in which scientists said they were more certain of human influence on global warming than ever before, reinforces the need to boost support for the world's poorest communities who are already experiencing severe climate impacts, international aid experts said on Friday.

Thomas Stocker, co-chair of the working group that produced the report, told journalists that the rising sea-levels, higher temperatures and precipitation shifts outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) clearly demonstrate that "climate change challenges the two primary resources of humans and ecosystems - land and water."  "In short, it threatens our planet, our only home," added the Swiss climate scientist.

Many humanitarian and development groups said the report confirmed what they are witnessing on the ground in their work to help impoverished people cope with worsening climate-related disasters and longer-term stresses.

"This report gives further scientific backing to what our partner organisations around the world have been telling us: the climate is changing, and not in a good way. Droughts, floods and erratic weather are ruining crops and damaging communities," said Paul Cook, advocacy director at Tearfund...

Women in an Indian village, shot by Yann, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license