The threat of global warming to the world is being highlighted in a new report, which suggests the point of no return has almost been reached.
Droughts, water shortages and agriculture failure are just some of the problems the world could soon be facing in the next 10 years, or less, according to the report by a task force of senior politicians, business leaders and academics from around the world.
The study, entitled, Meeting the Climate Challenge, said the point of no return may well be reached in as little as 10 years, putting a figure, for the first time, on the danger point of global warming.
The changes caused by a warmer climate, it said, would include widespread agriculture failure, water shortages and droughts, as well as increased disease, rising sea levels and the death of forests.
Stephen Byers, the former transport secretary who co-chaired the task force, said: “There is an eco-logical time-bomb ticking away.”
The report was assembled by the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK, the Centre for American Progress in the US and the Australia Institute.
It urged all G8 countries to agree to generate a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and to double research on low-carbon energy technologies by 2010.
