Last week in Monterrey, Mexico, government leaders and environmental experts from the world's top 20 polluting nations gathered to assess the international climate change problem and the potential for a common strategy.
The event ended in an upbeat mood, with observers commenting on the unusual accord between the countries over the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The summit, which brought G8 member nations together with developing countries including Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, focussed particularly on a new strategy to deal with climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
The various leading government figures heard the findings of a UK-commissioned study on the economics of climate change presented by economist and study author Nicolas Stern who advised that it was better and cheaper for action to be taken now or else governments would have to pay much more later.
The World Bank meanwhile presented its framework for investment in clean technology that would help developing countries to use environmentally friendly models to expand their energy supplies in stark contrast to the dirty methods used by the West.
The country representatives met as climate experts at the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research issued a dire warning that drought will hit half of the land surface of the Earth in the coming century as a result of global warming - a "death sentence for many millions", said Christian Aid's Andrew Pendleton.
One unpublished Met Office study found that when carbon cycle effects are taken into consideration future drought is even worse and predicted a massive rise in the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) figure for extreme drought from its current 3 per cent to 30 per cent.
Christian development agency Tearfund welcomed the unanimous conclusion of the 20 top polluting nations at this week's summit that the climate change problem was now beyond doubt. It urged, however, that much more needed to be done.
The agency also warned last week that thousands of lives, as well as tens of billions of dollars in development work, would be lost in poor countries if more urgent action was not taken now.
Christian Today spoke to Rachel Roach, Climate Change Policy Advisor at Tearfund, on the outcome of last week's climate change summit and the prospects for a genuinely international-level effort to tackle the issue.
