A new report blames humans for climate change

An influential group of scientists has concluded that global climate change is "very likely" to have a human cause.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC said temperatures were probably going to increase by 1.8 - 4 Celsius by the end of the century.

It also projected that sea levels were most likely to rise by 28-43cm, and global warming was likely to influence the intensity of tropical storms. The UN climate panel of 2500 scientists from more than 130 countries, has issued its most comprehensive warning yet about the scale and speed of global warming.

It has raised its estimation of our effect on the phenomenon, from a 66 to a 90 percent probability that human activity is "very likely" to contribute to global warming.

The last report was only six years ago, when the scientists could only say it was "likely" our burning of fossil fuels had changed things dramatically over the last 50 years.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are now at a 650- 000 year high. In a worst-case scenario temperatures could jump by more than six degrees by the end of the century, although the panel admits that how this influences the melting of polar ice is impossible to predict as the polar systems are still not understood well enough.

People in Djakarta, currently suffering serious floods, will note sea levels appear to be rising even faster than previously predicted by the panel, which started working in 1988.

It delivers three more reports this year in what it says is the "definitive" study of global warming.

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