Prepare For Freak Weather Worldwide, Top Global Polluters Told - Reuters

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MONTERREY, Mexico, Oct 4 (Reuters) - The world's top polluting nations were told on Wednesday to prepare for decades of weather turmoil, even if they act now to curb emissions and pursue green energy sources. Environment and energy ministers meeting in the Mexican city of Monterrey vowed to work faster to control global warming as scientists told them each year wasted in curbing greenhouse gas emissions would cost them dearly.

The informal talks did not set emissions-cutting targets, but delegates agreed on the need to expand the global carbon trading market to provide investment for green initiatives. British Environment Secretary David Miliband said scientists told the meeting that if no action is taken, carbon dioxide emissions will more than double by 2050. "The meeting has dramatized the need for comprehensive global action. The message about the need for early action is very strong," he told a news conference.

Yet even if countries froze emission levels tomorrow, the world still faces 30 years of floods, heatwaves, hurricanes and coastal erosion, the British government's chief scientific advisor David King, said.

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Delegates discussed energy efficiency, conservation and how to fund initiatives like storing the carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants deep underground. But it is likely to be at least the end of the decade before most projects can get off the ground.

"Time is running out, and the size of the challenge is enormous," Mexican Environment Minister Jose Luis Luege said. Developing countries at the talks - including South Africa, Brazil and Mexico - were told to adapt for possible floods, droughts, storms and a surge in tropical diseases like malaria.

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