UN report shows time is running out to meet 2°C target

The world is running out of time to cut greenhouse gas emissions and stay below agreed limits on global warming, a draft U.N. study to be approved this week shows.

Government officials and climate scientists will meet in Berlin from 7-12 April to review the draft that also estimates the needed shift to low-carbon energies would cost between two and six percent of world output by 2050.

It says nations must impose drastic curbs on their still rising use of fossil fuels to meet a commitment made by nearly 200 countries in 2010 to limit global warming to less than 2°C (3.6°F) over pre-industrial times.

The new U.N. reports show that temperatures have already risen by about 0.8°C (1.4°F) since 1900 and are set to breach the 2°C ceiling in the coming decades if current trends continue.

Continued temperature rises will heighten the risks to food and water supplies and could trigger irreversible damage, according to U.N. reports.

The draft highlights ways to reduce emissions and expand the use of low-carbon energy.

Another report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last week in Japan showed warming already affects every continent and would damage food and water supplies and slow economic growth.

The new draft illustrates that getting on track to meet the 2°C target would mean limiting GHG emissions to between 30 and 50 billion tonnes in 2030, after a surge to 49 billion tonnes in 2010 from 38 billion in 1990.

The IPCC draft report is the third and final study in a U.N. series about climate change, updating findings from 2007, after the Japan report about the impacts and one in September in Sweden about climate science.

The September report raised the probability that human actions, led by the use of fossil fuels, are the main cause of climate change since 1950.