Climate change will compound the already difficult task to feed an increasing population of the world, and a political consensus on responding to climate change has to be reached as soon as possible, said a UN official yesterday.

"My fear is that the political process on climate change is moving very slowly. I wonder if we can afford it. We have to react quickly on climate change mitigation on all levels and start climate change adaptation," Dr. Wulf Killmann, chairperson of the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Inter-departmental Working Group on Climate Change, told Xinhua in an interview.

Climate change and its impacts add to the many reasons why there are still millions of people around the world who are suffering from hunger, he added.

The international community has set the task of halving the number of people suffering from hunger by the year 2015, but climate change has made it more difficult to realize the goal, said Dr. Killmann.

FAO is committed to achieving food security for all. Food security is not only about food production, but also access to enough food.

FAO has the obligation to assist member countries in overcoming hunger, maintaining food production, food accessibility and food stability, Dr. Killmann said.

Participants at the UN Climate Change Conference, which opened in Bali on Monday, are having marathon discussions for an international climate change regime after the first phase of implementation of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

FAO is due to hold a high-level conference on world food security and the challenges of climate change and bio-energy in Rome in June next year, and some heads of state or government are expected to attend the meeting, said Dr. Killmann.