Poor at risk, action needed on warming: U.N. draft

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - The poor are among those likely to suffer most from climate change, according to a draft U.N. report that says the world must act quickly to brake ever more damaging temperature rises.

World leaders will meet at U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday to discuss ways to fight warming, partly spurred by reports by the U.N. climate panel early this year saying human activities were very likely the cause of an unequivocal warming.

A new draft of the panel's 22-page "Summary for Policymakers", obtained by Reuters, sharpens warnings about climate change and adds a more human touch by pointing more clearly to those who are most vulnerable.

"In all regions there are certain sectors and communities which are particularly at risk, for example the poor, young children, the elderly and the ill," it says. The report, prepared by 40 experts, sums up 3,000 pages of science.

The poor, for instance, depend heavily on farming that may be disrupted by shifts in rains or desertification in Africa. In Asia, millions of the poorest people live around river deltas that may be hit by rising seas or storm surges.

The report also highlights risks including extinctions, heatwaves, erosion and increased strain on water supplies for hundreds of millions of people.

The draft of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), dated August 31, will be reviewed and approved by governments in Valencia, Spain, in November. It updates a May 15 draft, obtained by Reuters last month.

It reiterates that world emissions of greenhouse gases would have to peak by 2015 and then fall by between 50 and 85 percent by 2050 below 2000 levels to limit global temperature rise to 2.0-2.4 degrees Celsius (3.6-4.3 F) above pre-industrial times.