Climate change hitting developing countries worst, says UN

JAKARTA (AFP) – Climate change is having an increasing impact around the world, with developing countries the worst hit and least capable of defending themselves, a top UN climate change official has said.

“I think there is no doubt that more and more impacts of climate change are already being seen around the world,” said Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), on Monday.

“What I personally find even more worrying is the extent to which these impacts could be a harbinger for far more extreme things to come,” de Boer added.

He was in Indonesia to prepare for the 13th UN climate change conference to be held on the island of Bali in December.

Weather-related disasters killed almost 3,000 people and caused 27 billion dollars in damage in China last year, he said, while the retreat of Himalayan glaciers is affecting water supplies in India and China.

AFP