The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Tokyo

The head of a UN climate panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize warned that Asia was particularly vulnerable to global warming, with the continent set for more disasters unless action is taken.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that fighting greenhouse gasses entailed more than adopting new technologies, with individuals required to change their lifestyles.

"Asia being the rapidly growing continent with the largest share of the human population located over here, clearly vulnerabilities in Asia are going to be of importance," Pachauri told an environmental conference in Tokyo. The Indian scientist said Asia risked floods and diminished access to fresh water and food supply if global warming continued unabated.

"Poor communities are of course at the highest risk," he said, explaining that they did not have the capacity to adapt to climate change.

"In the case of coastal areas, flooding of the residences of millions of people could take place in South, Southeast and East Asia." He warned that the vital agricultural production of Asia's densely populated delta regions would be in jeopardy if temperatures kept rising.

Pachauri's panel, a network of 3,000 experts regarded as the world's top scientific authority on global warming, shared this year's Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president turned environmental activist Al Gore.