Scientists are predicting a global food shortage could be in the works within decades if the issue of climate change persists. A combination of factors including an increasing number of floods and droughts will likely wreak havoc on the food and water supply, Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change told attendees of a meeting in Budapest.

If the forecasts are accurate, the Northern Hemisphere will experience more floods, while the Mediterranean Sea basin, the western U.S., regions in southern Africa and northeastern Brazil will face droughts. The lack of clean drinking water is already a prominent issue in some areas of the world and the additional stress to the water supply will cause health problems worldwide, according to a report released by the IPCC. They also say a shortage of water will negatively impact approximately 250 million Africans by 2020 if global warming isn't curbed.

U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer told reporters that Himalayan glaciers which "provide tens of millions of people in India and China with drinking water" are "potentially disappearing".

One of the co-authors of the IPCC report said water issues would be one of the main problems of climate change.

"Everybody pretty much agrees that water is central to the way climate change is going to affect ecosystems and every human being," said Kathleen Miller, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. "It's one of the key things that we depend on."

In the U.S., "physically the changes will be pretty intense," Miller said. "There's a high likelihood of the west getting drier."

» International Herald Tribune