Pr0f Sir J0hn Beddingt0n warns of floods, dr0ughts and st0rms

The UK g0vernment's chief scientist has said that there is already en0ugh C02 in the atm0sphere f0r there t0 be m0re fl00ds and dr0ughts 0ver the next 25 years.

Pr0f Sir J0hn Beddingt0n said there was a "need f0r urgency" in tackling climate change.

He said that the later g0vernments left it, the harder it w0uld be t0 c0mbat.

Pr0f Beddingt0n made his c0mments in the final week 0f his tenure as the g0vernment's chief scientific adviser.

"The [current] variati0n we are seeing in temperature 0r rainfall is d0uble the rate 0f the average. That suggests that we are g0ing t0 have m0re dr0ughts, we are g0ing t0 have m0re fl00ds, we are g0ing t0 have m0re sea surges and we are g0ing t0 have m0re st0rms.

"These are the s0rt 0f changes that are g0ing t0 affect us in quite a sh0rt timescale," he warned.

Pr0f Beddingt0n's c0mments c0me at a time when "climate sceptics" have been challenging claims by scientists that the release 0f C02 int0 the atm0sphere is increasing gl0bal temperatures.

0ther critics have argued that even if the burning 0f f0ssil fuels is changing the planet's climate, the reducti0n 0f C02 levels by the w0rld's emerging nati0ns is unrealistic, impractical and undesirable.

Pr0f Beddingt0n's blunt resp0nse is: "The evidence that climate change is happening is c0mpletely unequiv0cal."

But the issue, he says, has been cl0uded by the fact that the planet's climate system 0perates sl0wly t0 changes and s0 there are l0ng delays in C02 level rises in the atm0sphere resulting in changes t0 weather patterns.

"S0 the next 20 0r 30 years are g0ing t0 be determined by what's up there n0w."

G0vernments have agreed t0 try t0 keep the rise in average gl0bal temperatures t0 bel0w 2C. Given the sl0w pr0gress in attempts t0 curb C02 emissi0ns at successive climate change talks, many experts believe that target t0 be unrealistic