Yvo de Boer said Africa was still lagging in attracting investments in green technology to help slow rising greenhouse gases and in getting help to adapt to the effects of droughts, floods, rising seas and less predictable rains.

Speaking during 160-nation August 21-27 climate talks in Accra, De Boer urged African nations to insist on their interests regarding a new UN climate treaty due to be agreed by the end of 2009 in Copenhagen.

"I really tried to emphasise here that this process up to Copenhagen is a golden opportunity for African countries to make sure that the next regime does meet their needs in a much better way," he said.

African nations are among those that have done least to stoke climate change, blamed mainly on emissions of gases from burning fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, and yet is among the continents most vulnerable to a changing climate.

A UN Climate Panel report last year, for instance, projected that up to 250 million people in Africa would be living in areas of stress on water supplies by 2020.

Nampa-Reuters

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