'Impact of climate change will continue for a decade"

CHENNAI: The impact of climate change would continue for a decade or more though drastic measures were taken to reduce its effect, Chairman of Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr R K Pachauri said.

"The impact of climate change is likely to continue for another decade or more though measures were taken in the wake of global warming," Pachauri said speaking at a function to celebrate of 50 years of Hindu-Hitachi Scholarship and a symposium 'Energy, Environment and future Indo-Japan Collaboration'.

On the changes in global average surface temperature, he said that over the last 100 years it (temperature) had increased by 0.74 degree C in the planet.

Pachauri said that the melting of the glaciers has led to nearly 28 per cent rise in the sea level since 1993. "Water stored in glaciers are projected to decline in the course of the century, due to which 500 million people across the globe will be affected," he added.

Sea level had risen since 1961 globally at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year, he said adding that the average Arctic temperature also increased almost twice the global average rate in the past 100 years.