Kenya - UN conference on Global Warming

On continent at greatest risk, thousands gather in Kenya to weigh next steps on climate

Government officials, scientists and activists from around the world converged on drought-stricken Kenya for Monday's opening of the U.N. conference on climate change, the first such session in sub-Saharan Africa, the continent at greatest risk as the world warms.

A U.N. report Sunday forecast a dire future if global temperatures continue to rise.

One-third of Africa's species may lose their habitats by 2085 as climate zones shift, it said. In some areas, 30 percent of coastal infrastructure may be wrecked by rising seas. On the world's hungriest continent, cereal crop yields are projected to decline.

The U.N. Environment Program chief sees an issue of basic fairness.

"The problem was not caused on the Africa continent, and yet it's Africa that has to adapt," Achim Steiner told a news conference.

A leading African environmentalist was more blunt.

"It's the luxury emissions of the United States versus our survival emissions," Grace Akumu, of Climate Network Africa, told The Associated Press....

Many experts are saying industrialized nations must cut emissions by as much as 80 percent by mid-century to head off temperature increases as high as 5.8 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of this century....

Meanwhile:

10,000 rally in UK over climate change

Thousands of environmental campaigners have rallied in London ahead of international talks on climate change in Kenya, demanding that world leaders act to curb global warming.

The event included a march from the United States embassy in protest against US President George W Bush's refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on cutting climate-warming gases from fossil fuels.

Police said around 10,000 people, including 450 cyclists, had gathered in Trafalgar Square in the capital's centre.

"People have realised that climate change is a humanitarian issue, a peace-and-security issue, an economic issue, as much as it is a green issue," Ashok Sin.