UNITED NATIONS (CMC):

The United Nations has warned that the supply of fish stocks will plummet as the world heats up, impacting millions of people in the Caribbean and other developing nations who depend on fishing for their economic success.

According to a new report released Friday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), rising greenhouse gas emissions threaten at least three quarters of key fishing grounds, which could affect the 2.6 billion people who derive their protein from seafood.

The study says the ocean's natural pumping systems, which bring nutrients to fish and also help flush out wastes and pollution, are under threat.

Threatens infrastructure

Additionally, it says increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will raise the acid level in seas and oceans, "which will hurt corals, as well as planktonic organisms, at the base of the food chain."

"Climate change threatens coastal infrastructure, food and water supplies and the health of people across the world," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. "This is as much a development and economic issue as it is an environmental one."

Scientists have repeatedly warned that the region's coral reefs are under threat because of climate change. The study notes that the worst effects of a combination of climate change, over-harvesting, bottom trawling, invasive species infestations, coastal development and pollution are concentrated in 10 to 15 per cent of oceans, far higher than previously thought.

The study, In Dead Water, was launched at UNEP's governing council/global ministerial environ-ment forum, which ended Friday in Monaco.

Focusing on the theme 'Mobilising Finance for the Climate Challenge', it was the largest gathering of environment ministers since last December's landmark UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, which ended with 187 countries agreeing to launch a two-year process of formal negotiations on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol.

The study comes in the wake of this month's appeal by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for urgent aid to address climate change.

"Climate change of very damaging proportions, which poses a very serious danger to the very existence of our countries, is already occurring," said Barbados' UN Ambassador, Dr Christopher Hackett, speaking on behalf of CARICOM, during a two-day UN special session on the issue earlier this month.

"And the longer the international community postpones the necessary greenhouse gas emission cuts, the more adaptation will be required by Small Island Developing States at much greater cost."