Climate change growing threat to food, biodiversity - officials

"Climate change is worsening everything. Flood disasters increased by 230 percent and drought disasters by 38 percent in the 20 years to the early 2000s," said Rachel Kyte, vice president of sustainable development at the World Bank, at the World Conservation Congress in South Korea, as reported by Alertnet.

As changing climate patterns are raising risks and pushing companies as well as governments to act, experts called on the world’s businesses to take an aggressive lead in the fight against climate change and in support of sustainable development. "What is fundamental is (that) we act as a global community", continued Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). "If businesses take the lead, governments would follow," he concluded.