Peru's climate will be characterized by more extreme weather phenomena in coming years as a result of climate change, meteorologists warned Sunday.

Sixto Flores, from Peru's National Meteorological and Hydrology Service, told reporters in Lima that according to Pan American Health Organization, the Andean country has been the third most vulnerable country by extreme weather, following Honduras and Bangladesh.

Flores cited the current torrential rains that have killed 20 people and destroyed thousands homes in the country since January, and recommended the authorities and residents adopt a culture of prevention given the ever greater frequency of extreme weather plaguing the nation, such as hurricanes, droughts and hear waves.

He also predicted that the jungle frost weather phenomenon could also come to Peru this year, saying that a cold snap had already been reported from the southern province of Madre de Dios to the northern province of Loreto.

Flores voiced his warning after representatives from some 160 countries agreed Saturday in Bangkok, Thailand's capital, on a timetable of negotiations which are expected to lead to a new pact on cutting greenhouse gas emissions for industrialized countries after 2012, when the first commitment period 2008-2012 of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires.

The Kyoto Protocol requires 37 industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. However, scientists claim that the world needs to cut the emissions by half by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2008)