US delegates say dangers of climate change unclear

The United States believes there is no clear scientific definition of the dangers of climate change although it recognizes urgent action is needed, a US conference delegation said.

"The scientific definition of that is lacking, and so we are operating within the construct of, again, strong agreement among world leaders that urgent action is warranted," said Jim Connaughton, chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality.

Connaughton, a top White House environmental adviser, was speaking late Friday during a conference call from a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Valencia, Spain. The Nobel-winning IPCC was to release the fourth and final piece of its assessment report on climate change later Saturday, summarising the first overview on the effect of greenhouse gases since 2001.

"The scientific community has offered a wide range of perspectives in these documents," Connaughton said. "We are operating consistent with the G8 leaders' consensus that the issue warrants urgent action, and we need to bring forward, in a more accelerated way, the technology that will make a lasting solution possible."

The IPCC report is styled as a guide for politicians facing tough decisions on cutting pollution from fossil fuels, shifting to cleaner energy, bolstering defences against extreme weather, and other problems set to intensify through climate change. The IPCC was to adopt a 20-page "summary for policymakers" and a 70-page technical document. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon warned Saturday that the world was on the verge of a "catastrophe" due to global warming after the draft IPCC report said the evidence of a human role in observed warming was now "unequivocal."