Report: Climate change threatens historic Jamestown, Va.

Human-caused climate change threatens to flood Jamestown, the first permanent European settlement in what became the American colonies and the United States, says a report Wednesday by environmental groups.

Jamestown Island, the site of the original 1607 settlement, is low enough to be inundated by rising seas and tidal waters -- even if the waters do not rise as much by 2100 as scientists predict, according to the report by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Climate Organization.

Financing said vital for world climate change deal

(Reuters) - A global fund to help poorer countries switch to green industrial technology is vital in any new international pact to battle global warming, Switzerland's top climate change negotiator said on Wednesday.

UNEP welcomes review of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Statement by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Response to the Report by the

InterAcademy Council (IAC) on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

UNEP welcomes the independent review of the IAC, requested by the United Nations Secretary General and the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

We will now study the findings and recommendations and look forward to how governments will respond when they meet at the upcoming IPCC plenary in the Republic of Korea in October.

UNEP’s initial response to this thorough report, conducted by the leading body representing many of the world’s distinguished scientific academies, is that it re-affirms the integrity; the importance and validity of the IPCC’s work while recognizing areas for improvement in a rapidly evolving field.

The IAC did not review the fundamental science of climate change but was tasked with reviewing the processes, procedures and management of the IPCC in part to minimize errors as the body moves forward.

As the IAC points out in its preface to today’s report, several recent reviews including by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and the United States National Research Council—carried out following concern over alleged errors in the 2007 fourth assessment of the IPCC—concluded that the key findings remain unaffected.