David Fogarty
Source: Reuters UK
December 12, 2009

More than 250 million people risk losing their livelihoods because of dying tropical coral reefs in what a senior U.N. environmental economist said on Saturday was part of a double climate crisis facing the world.

"We forget that there are two emissions problems. The one that everyone is aware of and is doing something about is climate change," said Pavan Sukhdev of the U.N. Environment Programme on the sidelines of the world's largest climate talks.

"The second emissions problem is the emergency around coral reefs," he said.

"More than 250 million people are at risk seriously of their lifeblood going away because of the lack of fish on tropical coral reefs," he told reporters in Copenhagen.

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