"Global average sea level has risen since 1961 at an average rate of 1.8 mm/yr and since 1993 at 3.1 mm/yr, with contributions from thermal expansion, melting glaciers and ice caps, and the polar ice sheets", according to the summary for policymakers, which warns that the earth's atmosphere already contains enough CO2 to raise sea levels by nearly 1.5 metres over the next millenium.
The summary also warns about a 5% drop in global GDP, a 50% reduction in African crop yields, destruction of the Amazon rainforest, widespread droughts, desertification, flooding and fierce storms.
Growth in global CO2 emissions must be curbed within seven years in order to prevent the extinction of 25% of the world's species, according to the IPCC. But some critics argue the IPCC's findings are out-of-date and too 'optimistic', and warn of impending climate-related catastrophes.
Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General, who conducted a global tour of climate change 'hot spots' before speaking to the IPCC, called on the US and China to "play a more constructive role" in reducing CO2 emissions.
US and Chinese leaders will meet with their European and international counterparts in Bali to begin official talks on a global regime to deal with climate change.
The EU, which has a series of climate-change policies in place since 2000 and which considers its Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) to be a flagship initiative, is hoping the Bali talks will produce a mandate to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, set to expire in 2013.
But the US, which never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, has consistently expressed its opposition to binding CO2 emissions cuts imposed at international level, and China has argued that its development should not be stifled and that industrialised nations bear a greater historical responsibility for global warming.
