UN expert warns of global warming dangers and costs

THE UN’s top climate scientist has cautioned climate negotiators that global warming is leading to human dangers and soaring financial costs, but containing carbon emissions will have a host of benefits.

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, summarised a litany of potential disasters at a UN climate conference in the South African city of Durban.

Although he gave no explicit deadlines, he warned time is running out for greenhouse gas emissions to level off and begin to decline.