Bangkok - Bangkok residents in 2007 produced as much carbon dioxide as New Yorkers and surpassed Londoners' emissions by 1.2 tons per capita, a United Nations-sponsored report revealed Wednesday.

Residents in Bangkok and New York each emitted 7.1 tons of the greenhouse gas in 2007 while London residents emitted 5.9 tons, according to a report compiled by the Bangkok government and the Green Leaf Foundation, a Bangkok-based environmental group, with support from the United Nations.

Bangkok's transportation, electricity generation and solid wastewater treatment produced 90 per cent of the Thai capital's carbon dioxide with the transport sector alone accounting for almost 38 per cent of the annual total, the report said.

"We hope that this report will raise awareness of the issues and stimulate actions that need to be taken by residents, the private and public sectors to reduce those impacts and for the city to adapt," said Park Young Woo, regional director of the UN Environment Programme.

Park warned that rising sea levels combined with land subsidence could leave Bangkok, which is ringed by the Chao Phraya River, under 50 to 100 centimetres of water by 2025.

The report called on Bangkok's government to prepare for more climate-related challenges in the city by improving public health infrastructure and disease surveillance and prevention programmes, creating early warning systems for extreme weather and implementing stricter zoning and building codes to minimize damage from storms and the rise of sea levels.

"Our communal action in combating climate change and making adjustments in the way we live will bring about benefits not only now but also to future generations of people at home and abroad," Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said at the report's launch Wednesday on Earth Day. (dpa)