In the most emphatic warning yet about the danger of global warming, a meeting of scientists from 99 nations issued a report Monday that sharply increased projected climate change blamed on air pollution and warned of drought and other disasters. In 2012 South Africa may well have to take on a carbon emission target, as has been done in the industrialised world. Africa may face more natural disasters if the world's main economic powers do not ratify a key protocol on climate change as soon as possible, according to a top United Nations environmentalist. World leaders who have failed to agree on how to stem global warming are unlikely to find help from the arrival at the White House of George W Bush, environmental groups say. The Hague - Poor nations said their fears of environmental turmoil were sidelined at U.N. climate talks yesterday as rich nations responsible for most of the world's pollution squabbled over how to stop global warming.
Climate change presents real risks for the future of mankind.
Amid much fanfare, a UN summit on global warming is being held in the Netherlands. The sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change scheduled during 13-24 November 2000 in the Hague, has just commenced. South Africa has dispatched a multi-sectoral delegation headed by the Deputy Director General, Dr Nombasa Tsengwa, to this meeting which is expected to agree a concrete programme of action towards dealing with the global threat of climate change. Everyone knows what the problem is. And almost everyone agrees on the solution.