Lindau, Germany (PTI): Developed nations should take "concrete steps" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent climate change, which is no longer a "fantasy of scientists," Nobel Laureate Rajendra Pachauri has said, citing crop failures and food shortages in some developing countries.

Chairman of Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Pachauri also warned against making 'uncertainty' over its consequences a pretext against taking far-reaching measures and said urgent actions are needed now, at least to stabilise the situation "before it becomes too late".

"If we take immediate actions now, it will take years to reach where we should have been... Global climate change is not a fantasy of scientists and we already find ourselves in that," Mr. Pachauri told a panel at the 59th annual Meetings of Nobel Laureates, while advocating a change in lifestyles.

The discussions were held on Saturday on the island of Mainau and were followed by the opening of a two-month long exhibition called "Discoveries" on sustainable use of water resources, in which India is also participating.

Mr. Pachauri said developing nations have been bearing the brunt of the consequences of climate change in the form of crop failures, food shortages, outbreak of diseases such as Malaria and extreme weather conditions.

Rich nations, meanwhile, have benefited most from industrialisation which contributed to unbridled emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

"The developed countries should now take the first concrete steps towards implementing effective measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Mr. Pachauri said, reacting to comments by Bjorn Lomborg of the Copenhagen Business School that living conditions in developing nations were a much more serious problem than climate change.

Even though global warming is a serious problem, a major part of the population in developing countries "still live in medieval conditions and fixing climate change will not improve their living conditions," Mr. Lomborg said.

Mr. Pachauri, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 together with the former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, told the gathering of 23 Nobel Laureates and around 600 young scientists from 67 countries that global warming was just one aspect of a large problem, which has been created by unsustainable growth and can be checked, even reversed through sustainable development.

"There is no alternative to sustainable use of resources to ensure that mankind meets needs of the present generation and to provide for the needs of future generations," he said.

Contending that draconian measures are not needed to combat climate change, if people are prepared to change their lifestyles, he said putting a price on emission curbs by means of taxation or fiscal policy can be effective.

Inspite of deep divisions among industrialised and developing nations, Pachauri was optimistic that an agreement on a successor treaty to Kyoto Protocol could be reached at the final round of negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

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