U.N. climate chief warns fires and floods should be wakeup call

By Ian Swanson - 09/02/10 10:59 AM ET

Environmental ministers meeting in Geneva today were told a series of weather disasters point to the need for action on climate change.

The ministers are attending a session at the United Nations focused on financing a shift to green technologies in poorer countries. More than 40 countries are attending the meetings.

Christiana Figueres, the U.N.’s climate chief, said a string of weather calamities point to the need for swift action, according to AFP.

Figueres mentioned the devastating floods in Pakistan and fires in Russia, which she said were a wakeup call for the need for a new global climate-change agreement.

“Science will show whether and how those events are related to climate change caused by humanity’s greenhouse-gas emissions, but the point is clear: We cannot afford to face escalating disasters of that kind,” she said, according to AFP.

The talks in Geneva run until Friday and are focused on how to provide financing for poorer countries to shift from fossil fuels.

The meetings are to prepare for a climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, that begins in November.

World leaders met in Copenhagen, Denmark, late last year for a United Nations meeting on a climate-change deal, but it was clear even before the summit began that they would not reach that goal.

In the U.S., the House approved climate-change legislation last year, but the issue is locked in a Senate stalemate in an election year when many members want to avoid the topic.