U.N. panel blames mankind more clearly for warming

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Top climate scientists blamed mankind more clearly than ever as the main cause of global warming in a report on Friday meant to guide governments in dealing with rising temperatures, delegates said.

“It’s been accepted,” Jonathan Lynn, spokesman for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told reporters of a final summary for policymakers approved at the end of the week-long meeting in Stockholm.

He gave no details but delegates said the report raised the probability that most global warming since the mid-20th century was manmade to 95 percent, from 90 percent in its previous report in 2007 and 66 percent in 2001.

The report also says that a recent slowdown in the rate of global warming is unlikely to last, delegates said.

It projects ever more heatwaves, droughts, floods and a creeping rise in sea levels unless urgent action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Almost 200 governments have agreed to work out a U.N. deal by the end of 2015 to combat global warming, partly by shifting from fossil fuels towards renewable energies.

The panel will release full details of the report later on Friday. (Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)