BRUSSELS, April 6: Climate change is set to inflict damage in every continent, hitting poor countries hardest and threatening nearly a third of the world’s species with extinction, UN experts warned on Friday.

Global warming will affect much of life on earth this century, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a landmark report whose drafting was marked by an angry row.

Damage to earth's weather systems from greenhouse gases will change rainfall patterns, punch up the power of storms and boost the risk of drought, flooding and stress on water supplies, the IPCC said.

The consequences will be adverse or in some scenarios even catastrophic, depending chiefly on how much carbon gas is spewed into the atmosphere from burning oil, gas and coal.

“Poor people are the most vulnerable and will be the worst hit by the impacts of climate change. This becomes a global responsibility,” the IPCC's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, declared.

The grim report unleashed a volley of concern and demands for action to both scale back fossil-fuel pollution and help exposed countries cope with the threat. Up to 30 per cent of animal and plant species will be vulnerable to extinction if global temperatures rise by 1.5-2.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 to 4.5 Fahrenheit), the IPCC said.

“It is very likely that all regions will experience either declines in benefits or increases in costs for increases in temperature greater than 2 to 3 degrees” (C), or 3.6-5.4 F, over 1990 levels, according to a summary for policymakers agreed by the IPCC.

The summary's draft was fiercely disputed during a week of negotiations, ending with a marathon 24-hour session. Publication was delayed on the final day after several countries objected to tough wording, sparking charges of political interference from one delegate. — AFP