Red Cross Weigh In On Global Warming Crises

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has pointed to the growing role of global warming in causing natural disasters.

The Swiss-based humanitarian agency made the comments as it published its World Disasters Report 2007, which this year focuses on tackling discrimination of women, people with disabilities and the elderly during catastrophes.

There were 427 disasters in 2006 compared with 433 in 2005. In the same period, the number of affected people dropped ten per cent, while the number of deaths plunged by 75 per cent to 23,833.

Disaster costs were estimated at $34.5 billion (SFr39 billion) for 2006, a much lower figure than in 2005 - $210 billion - the year of the devastating Hurricane Katrina.

However, the annual report also noted that more than two thirds of natural disasters last year were caused by floods or by extreme weather and pointed to global warming as the main factor.

UN Chief says gas cuts too ambitious

Guidelines on greenhouse gas emissions cuts opposed by the United States may be "too ambitious" to include in a final statement from the climate conference in Bali, the U.N. chief said Wednesday.

Drafts of the conference statement obtained by The Associated Press have included a call for industrialized countries to reduce emissions blamed for global warming by between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, however, said such goals might have to wait for subsequent negotiations, though he added that at some point targets for emissions cuts would be necessary.

"Realistically, it may be too ambitious" to set guidelines now, Ban told reporters, when asked about steadfast opposition by the United States, though he urged Washington to be flexible.

Later he added, "Practically speaking, this will have to be negotiated down the road."

Talks at the two-week U.N. climate conference, which wraps up Friday, intensified with the arrival of ministers and heads of state. Many leaders, in a series of speeches, urged the world to quickly impose deep cuts in emissions to head off scientific predictions of rising seas, worsening droughts and famines, and melting ice-sheets due to global warming. |Read on|

Al Gore - Climate missing from U.S. elections

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore said on Monday the U.S. presidential election campaign had paid insufficient attention to the environment and climate change.

Gore & IPCC to accept Nobel Peace Prize

Al Gore said the Nobel Peace Prize he accepts Monday already has helped draw the world's attention to global warming and he expressed optimism that growing public pressure would push governments to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

The former vice president shares the prize with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which will be represented at Monday's award ceremony by its leader, Rajendra Pachauri.

A day before accepting the prize, Gore said reducing greenhouse gases was essential to fighting the ``planetary emergency'' of global warming. ``That phrase may sound shrill to some ears but it is accurate,'' he said. |Read more|

Poor Nations Must Help Stop Climate Change

Both rich and poor nations must commit to slashing greenhouse gas emissions if the world wants to solve global warming, Australia's trade minister said Saturday at a landmark climate change summit.

As the first week of the conference trying to lay the groundwork for a new climate change pact drew to a close, delegates in Indonesia's Bali appeared divided on the way forward to curb carbon dioxide emissions.

Japan and Canada are reported to be pushing for booming developing nations such as India and China -- set to become the world's major polluters -- to commit to binding cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming. |Read on|