Euro MPs seal major climate deal

Critics fear the climate deal may have been undermined by compromises The European Parliament has backed a package of measures to combat global warming - seen as a key EU initiative. The plan, agreed by EU leaders last week, sets out how the 27 member states will cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. With the backing of MEPs, the package - hailed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy as "historic" - becomes law. But critics say concessions made to some industrial sectors will lessen the package's long-term impact.  more

24 million climate refugees

24 million climate refugees around world today

Sat, Dec 6 08:37 PM

Poznan (Poland), Dec 6 (IANS) 'Climate change is going to lead to a bigger human migration than we've ever seen before,' Koko Warner from the UN University said here Saturday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Dec 1-12 summit of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Warner said 24 million people around the world had become climate refugees already, according to an estimate made by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Academics estimated that this figure would go up to 50 million by 2010.

The International Organisation for Migration, a UN body, has estimated that the number of people forced out of their homes by the effects of climate change - lower agricultural output, more frequent and more severe droughts, floods and storms and a rising sea - may reach 200 million by 2050.  more