Estimates from National Disaster Management Centre, NDMC, put the damage from the extreme weather the country has been facing as much as MVR hundreds of millions.

NEW DELHI: More than half of common plants and one third of the animals could see a dramatic decline this century due to climate change, according to research published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia looked at 50,000 globally widespread and common species and found that more than one half of the plants and one third of the animals will lose more than half of their climatic range by 2080 if nothing is done to reduce the amount of global warming and slow it down.

Carbon dioxide levels are about to rise to the highest they have been in five million years, triggering warnings a move towards low carbon economies is not happening quick enough.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Thursday that the year 2012 was the ninth warmest on record despite the cooling influence of a La Nina episode early in the year.

Recent reports from China and the USA indicate the production of staple foods including rice, wheat and soya are likely to be hit in the coming decades due to increasing incidences of extreme weath

Country faces more frequent and more severe weather events if it fails to make deep and swift cuts to carbon emissions

South China has experienced its worst month of extreme weather since 1998, and more is on the way in April, meteorological authorities said on Tuesday.