The draft report came after a five-day meeting in Japan and is the second volume in a long-awaited trilogy by the IPCC in its first overview of the causes and effects of global warming, and options for dealing with it, since 2007. In the first volume of the three-part review, the IPCC said it was more certain than ever that humans were the cause of global warming and predicted temperatures would rise another 0.3 to 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5-8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century.

Ian Bruce, science and policy manager at the David Suzuki Foundation in Vancouver, said it is clear that Canada is more vulnerable to some of the effects of climate change, and that global warming is amplified at the north and south poles. That's the bad news, he said.

"The good news is that the report shows that our future will not be determined by chance but (by) choices we make," said Bruce. "So we have a choice to reduce carbon emissions. The report says it is still possible that we can escape the worst impacts of climate change if we make some important changes."