Australia drought is climate change warning: UK

By Emma Graham-Harrison

BEIJING (Reuters) - Drought-hit Australia may offer a warning of how climate change threatens core human needs, as the continent's food bowl faces the prospect of having irrigation cut off, Britain's climate change ambassador said.

Canberra has said it will halt irrigation to an area that usually grows over a third of the country's farm produce, if heavy rain does not fall in the next few weeks.

"If that happens, that is not just an economic blow to Australia, it will do significant damage beyond Australia because of its effect on world food prices," John Ashton told Reuters during a visit to the Chinese capital.

"That is a current threat which almost certainly, or at least very probably, arises from human-induced climate change."

Australia faced an "unprecedentedly dangerous" drought, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said last week. Parts of the country have been stricken for a decade.

Ashton, Britain's Special Representative on Climate Change, said growing worries about global warming should not translate into tight short-term emissions caps for developing nations.

Rich countries responsible for most of the global warming gases currently in the atmosphere should instead channel more funds to poor nations to curb emissions growth, he added.

"It's right that we should lead the effort," he said. "Most of the excess burden of emissions which is in the atmosphere at the moment is the result of (industrial nations') development."