Meanwhile, a report released this week by the World Bank said the Middle East and North Africa will be hit particularly hard by climate change in the coming decade. The Adaptation to a Changing Climate in the Arab Countries report, which urges immediate action to avoid the projected consequences of water shortages and rising food insecurity, provides an assessment of the threat to the region posed by increasingly severe weather and offers a set of policy options of managing the effects.

Also this week, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the Arctic has already been highly impacted by climate change. The region broke new records for loss of sea ice and spring snow cover this year, according to the annual Arctic Report Card, reported the Los Angeles Times.

The Arctic sea ice retreated to a record minimum since scientists began measuring it with satellites in 1979, the report said.