UNITED NATIONS – John Holmes, the United Nation's undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and disaster relief, says pressure is building at the climate summit in Copenhagen to produce "credible results."

Holmes, who will attend the summit next week, told WND in an interview he believes there is political will, especially among the G-20 leaders, to attack the issues of climate change.

"My opinion is that it is pretty clear what the issues are, pretty clear what needs to be decided on," he said. "The only issue is how far they get? A watershed is obviously what we are hoping for. Will there be real political commitments made by all the serious leaders? And the fact that they are all going to be there is very significant. They wouldn't be turning up I guess if they didn't think there was going to an agreement.

The U.N. humanitarian chief spoke to reporters at U.N. headquarters and outlined some of the priorities for him and his group at the climate summit:

"When talking about climate change, we are not talking about something which is a future threat," he said. "We are not talking about something which may or may not happen in 50 years time, or 20 years time. We are talking about something which is happening now in terms of the effects of climate change on peoples' lives now, particularly in the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world."

Holmes said not only has the number of natural disasters taking place over the last decade increased but so has their intensity.

Hurricane Katrina and the South Pacific tsunami were just two examples, said the U.N. official.

Holmes admitted, however, that one couldn't attribute any one disaster to climate change, because the causal link is not that clear. However, he added that when one looks at the trends of the number of disasters that are climate related, the patterns are very clear.

"It is exactly what the scientists told us we should be expecting and it is exactly what is happening," he said.

A main concern is not just temperature change but the "changing patterns" of climates themselves.

That has produced "unprecedented" patterns of drought, especially in the Horn of Africa, while other areas, such as Bangladesh, experienced unprecedented floods, said Holmes.

The length of these events are longer and more frequent than in previous years he added.

Another issue is the impact of climate change on "food security."

More than 1 billion people around the world go to bed without enough to eat, reporters were told.

"It looks very likely that this is going to be a massive problem to deal with in the future and climate change is one of the factors which is going to make it more difficult," he said

Holmes said decreased rainfall is likely to result in food production in sub-Saharan being slashed by 50 percent by 2020.

Public health risks are likely to rise, too.

Many diseases are "highly sensitive" to climates and climate temperatures, he said, and malaria and dengue fever can be expected to spread to new areas.

The New York Times recently reported that Dengue Fever appeared in Florida for the first time in over 20 years.

The Times also reported that mosquito-borne diseases are on the rise across the U.S..

According to Holmes, who spoke to WND following his general address to reporters, the delegates in Copenhagen should not simply focus on mitigation or the reduction of emissions. The focus should also be on adaptation to the effects of climate change now and in the next few years.

Part of that includes "disaster risk reduction."

While disasters are often not preventable, one can improve the mechanisms which allow communities to better prepare to deal with them.

National preparedness to deal with such catastrophic events needs to be vastly improved, he stressed.

In the short term, Holmes said the U.N. is looking for a $10 billion a year commitment for the next three years.

Just where that financial burden would fall and who would pay it on was not explained.

While these concerns are not new, Holmes stressed that he and his team will travel to Denmark to make sure their priorities "are not drowned out in the cacophony" of issues the summit is expected to address.

The U.S./U.N. mission had no comment on the Holmes briefing.

President Obama is scheduled to travel to Copenhagen and address the summit next week.

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