U.N. Report: Earth's Climate Changes Severe And Irreversible

Valencia, Spain (AHN) - Changes to the Earth's climate turn out to be far worse than many thought.

Climate change is irreversible and it is going to cost all the countries on Earth billions of dollars to adapt to its severe outcomes, a United Nations report claimed on Saturday.

The report, which was prepared by the U.N.'s scientific panel, may be the wakeup call for all the nations, as it provides some of the clearest facts on global warming and ways to tackle problems caused by the changing climate. The report states, "only urgent, global action" can slow down the process.

The Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its fourth report of the year that all nations must start using clean technologies to bring down the emission levels of greenhouse gases.

The climate crisis could hit the United States and China hardest as they are the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters. The U.N.'s Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said, "[Climate change] is the defining challenge of our age."

He called upon the two countries to sign a new global climate pact. In two weeks, all the nations will begin to formulate a treaty that will replace the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012. The treaty will be drafted in a conference in Bali, Indonesia.

While releasing the U.N. climate change report, Ban said, "In Bali I expect the world's policymakers to do the same. The breakthrough needed in Bali is for a comprehensive climate change deal that all nations can embrace."

According to the final report, written by almost 2,500 top scientists, humans has triggered an "unequivocal" global changes due to which glaciers are retreating, Arctic summer sea ice is thinning, temperatures can reach irreversible degrees and the sea levels are rising.

Moreover, by 2100, every year sea levels can rise between 7 to 23 inches. The frequency of heat waves, rainstorms and tropical cyclones is expected to increase affecting the developing nations during this century.