Peter Griffiths for REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters) – The world lacks a sense of urgency over the importance of the U.N. climate change talks in Copenhagen in preventing a “human emergency” affecting hundreds of millions of people, the British government said on Thursday.
With United Nations talks on a new deal to combat global warming less than 50 days away, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said too many people still failed to grasp the scale and urgency of the problem.
Climate change will deepen Middle East tensions, trigger wars over water and food and lead to unprecedented migration unless action is taken now to curb global warming, he said.
“For too many people, not just in our own country but around the world, the penny hasn’t yet dropped … that this climate change challenge is real and is happening now,” Miliband told a news conference.
“The penny hasn’t dropped too that Copenhagen is the chance to address on a global scale the climate change challenge. There isn’t yet that sense of urgency and drive and animation about the Copenhagen conference.”
Disagreement between rich and poor countries on levels of emissions cuts and aid for developing nations to help make those reductions have hampered talks leading to Copenhagen.
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