"Armed with expert data, the world community says that global warming will continue and even intensify in the 21st century," said Vladimir Katsov, the head of a geophysics laboratory in Russia and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In a report published in Paris last Friday, the UN climate panel - a group of 2,500 scientists from 130 countries tasked with assessing climatic changes humanity might face in the coming years - said climate change was "very likely" man-made.
Katsov said average global temperatures have risen by 0.74C in the past 100 years, and that 11 out of the dozen years from 1995-2006 were among the 12 hottest since temperatures began to be monitored globally in 1850. He agreed with the IPCC report's estimate that the temperature would rise by 1.8-4C (3.2-7.2F) by the end of the century.
Warming is likely to influence the intensity of precipitation, floods and draughts affecting crops and probably triggering migration, he said.
"Dry summers are very probable in the North Caucasus, and heavy floods are highly possible in East and Central Siberia," he said, adding that permafrost areas could shift northward as a result, which could affect infrastructure.
In Africa, global warming could result in more draughts and higher temperatures, implying that large numbers of people on the continent could be forced to resettle, Katsov said.
Glacial melting is set to accelerate, and the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by the end of the century, he said. Sea levels are expected to rise by 19-58 centimeters during the century.
The scientist reiterated the panel's conclusion that human activities were the main cause of the increased atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and the resultant warming. Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are due largely to the burning of fossil fuels and agriculture.
"The results of analyses show that the current atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, exceeds levels reached in the last 650,000 years. Over 90% of the changes to the climate are due to the anthropogenic factor."
The contribution of changed solar activity to climate change is comparatively insignificant, he said.
