Representatives of Christian aid and development agencies expressed disappointment that, despite a Dec. 8 agreement among delegates at the UN climate talks to extend the Kyoto Protocol aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, there was little urgency to quicken the pace to respond to climate change.

The representatives were concerned because the Kyoto Protocol covers just 15 per cent of the world’s carbon output, an amount, they said, that is too small to reverse the trend of rising atmospheric temperatures and the growing threat of drought, rising ocean levels and severe weather.

In one example tied to climate change, 700 Halia people have been forced to relocate from the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea to higher ground on an island 80 km to the south.