Global Warming or Climate Change

Organisation urges better city planning and defensive measures to defend against rapid rise in climate change-linked disasters   Flooding and drought will affect more people but few countries are planning for it, warns the World Bank. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images The global community is badly prepared for a rapid increase in climate change-related natural disasters that by 2050 will put 1.3 billion people at risk, according to the World Bank . Urging better planning of cities before it was too late, a report published on Monday from a Bank-run body that focuses on disaster mitigation, said assets worth $158tn – double the total annual output of the global economy – would be in jeopardy by 2050 without preventative action. The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery said total damages from disasters had ballooned in recent decades but warned that worse could be in store as a result of a combination of global warming, an expanding population and the vulner

Tropical regions likely to suffer biggest increase in hot days and extreme weather because of climate change, say scientists   The study by the University of East Anglis is the first to link CO2 emissions with more frequent hot days. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images New evidence that poorer countries will suffer the worst effects of climate change has shown that the number of hot days in tropical developing countries is likely to increase markedly as global warming takes hold. It has long been expected that poor people would bear the brunt of climate change , largely because so many more of the world’s poorest live in tropical latitudes whereas, wealthier people tend to live in more temperate regions. This is inverse to the generally accepted responsibility for climate change, which falls mainly on rich countries that benefited early on from industry, and thus have historically high emissions, compared with poorer countries that have only begun catching up in the past few dec