(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-21 20:42

The international community in 2007 mobilized to fight the daunting challenge of global climate change, and has moved forward from awareness of the critical issue to negotiations and actions to face it.

AWARENESS RAISED

With the rapid development of industrialization, human beings are using more and more fossil energy, bringing not only wealth but also a huge amount of contamination and greenhouse gases.

The U.N.Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a new report on the phenomenon earlier this year, warning that the world's average temperature, if left unchecked, could rise by as much as 2 to 4 degrees centigrade by 2080.

This could lead to a lack of drinking water for 1.1 to 3.2 billion people and famine for 200 to 600 million people besides endangering the lives of between 200 and 700 million with floods, the report said.

It stressed there is no ground for doubting the fact that the earth is getting warmer, adding that the rate of climate change would accelerate if no efforts are made to reduce emissions.

It also said human beings' activities are the major cause for climate change, which, if not controlled, will do serious harm to economies, societies and ecosystems worldwide.

This report has rung the alarm bells for the world, raised our awareness of the negative impacts of climate change and aroused a worldwide debate on the issue.

IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri said leaders and citizens across the world must now pay unprecedented attention to the climate change problem.

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