AFP, Paris :Large swathes of New York and Shanghai could disappear under the waves and millions driven into poverty, fresh climate reports warned as ministers scrambled Monday for common ground weeks ahead of a crunch environmental summit. If global warming continues on its present trajectory of 4 Celsius (7.2 Fahrenheit), rising sea levels will claim land inhabited by more than 600 million people, according to a survey by Climate Central, a US-based research group.Such a rise would hit China the hardest, with around 145 million people living in coastal areas that would be submerged, the report warned.Even if the Paris summit, which starts on November 30, succeeds in its goal of limiting temperature rises to 2 C, around 280 million people would find their homes underwater, forecast Climate Central. A separate World Bank study released late Sunday said there could be “more than 100 million additional people in poverty by 2030″ if action was not taken to stem climate change.”The poor are more vulnerable to climate-related shocks than wealthier people,” said the report, urging “strong action” from leaders and diplomats at the Paris summit. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is hosting the meeting, issued his own dire warnings as ministers gathered in the French capital for eleventh-hour negotiations.”It is life on our planet itself which is at stake,” Fabius told journalists as ministers and climate envoys from 70 countries met for pre-summit talks to iron out tough political questions.With the key UN conference just three weeks away, Fabius also announced Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would attend the November 30 opening.Russia, a major oil producer, is seen as a deal-maker or breaker in the years-long attempt to negotiate the world’s first truly universal pact to curb climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.Meanwhile, greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2014 as the relentless fuelling of climate change makes the planet more dangerous for future generations, the World Meteorological Organization said today.”Every year we say that time is running out. We have to act NOW to slash greenhouse gas emissions if we are to have a chance to keep the increase in temperatures to manageable levels,” WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement.Graphs issued by the United Nations agency showed levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, climbing steadily towards the 400 parts per million (ppm) level, having hit a new record every year since reliable records began in 1984.
