The agencies cautioned that devastating droughts and floods brought on by global warming are already causing a huge leap in the number of people who need natural disaster relief.

“Over the past 20 years, the number of reported disasters has doubled from roughly 200 (per year) to 400,” said Kasidis Rochanakorn, head of the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Bekele Geleta, secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, urged those attending the negotiations, being held through Dec. 12 in the Polish city of Poznan, to factor disaster relief into any future treaty on climate change.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UNFCCC gathering, scientists from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said climate change and its effects are occurring at a faster rate than climate models had earlier predicted.

“We are now seeing devastating consequences of warming that were not expected to hit for decades,” WWF spokesperson Kim Carstensen said.

Of particular concern to atmospheric scientists is how rapidly the Arctic ice cap has begun to melt over the past few years, reaching a record low coverage during the summer of 2007.

“We had always known that the Arctic was going to respond first," said Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. "What has us puzzled is that the changes are even faster than we would have thought possible.”

Photo: UNFCCC